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A   SHORT   HISTORY 

OF 

OUR   OWN  TIMES 


A  SHORT  HISTORY 


OF 


OUR   OWN   TIMES 


FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

TO  THE 
QENERAL  ELECTION  OF  1880 


By  JUSTIN  McCarthy,  m.p. 

AUTHOR  OF 

"A  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES"   ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE 


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,v-> 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEB  PAGB 

I.  A  NEW  EEIGN   OPENS         .          .          .          '.                     ,          .        1 

II.  SOME  TROUBLES   TO  THE  NEW  REIGN           .           .          .      .      16 

III.  DECLINE  AND   FALL   OF  THE  MELBOURNE   MINISTRY       .      3G 

IV.  THE  AFGHAN   WAR         .           .           .           ,           .           .           .     .      44 
V.      peel's  ADMINISTRATION 57 

VI.      THE  ANTI-CORN  LAW   LEAGUE 67 

VII.      MR.    DISRAELI .78 

VIII.  FAMINE  AND  POLITICAL   TROUBLE       ..          .          .            .     ,      84 

IX.      ATHENS,  ROME,  AND  LONDON 95 

X.      PALMERSTON 110 

^    XI.      THE   CRIMEAN   WAR 132 

XII.  THE   LORCHA  '  ARROW.'— TRANSPORTATION           .           .      .   1G2 

XIII.      THE   INDIAN  MUTINY 170 

XrV.      THE   END   OP   <JOHN   COMPANY' 195 

XV.      THE   CONSPIRACY   BILL «  200 

-•  XVI.  DISRAELI'S   FIRST  REFORM   ENTERPRISE       .           .           »      .   214 

XVII.      LORD   PALMERSTON   AGAIN 225 

\  XVIII.      THE   CIVIL   WAR  IN   AMERICA 239 

XIX.      THE   LAST   OP   LORD   PALMERSTON 251 

XX.      THE  NEW   GOVERNMENT 275 

XXI.      REFORM  294 

"^  XXII.      STRIFE  AT  HOME   AND  ABROAD 811 

XXIII.  IRISH   QUESTIONS 339 

XXIV.  'REFORMATION   IN  A   FLOOD'        .  .  .  .  .      .   359 

XXV.  THE   FALL   OP   THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION  .           .  379 

XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD 397 

XXVn.  THE   CONGRESS   OP   BERLIN        .           .           .           .          '.           .414 

INDEX 433 


284775 


A   SHORT    HISTORY 


OF 


OUR     OWN     TIMES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A  NEW   EEIGN   OPENS. 

Before  half-past  two  o'clock  on  the  mornuig  of  June  20, 
1837,  WilUam  IV.  was  lying  dead  in  Windsor  Castle,  while 
the  messengers  were  already  hurrying  off  to  Kensington 
Palace  to  bear  to  his  successor  her  summons  to  the  throne. 
/With  William  ended  the  reign  of  personal  government  in 
England./  King  William  had  always  held  to  and  exercised  the 
right  to  dismiss  his  ministers  when  he  pleased,  and  because 
he  pleased.  In  our  day  we  should  believe  that  the  constitu- 
tional freedom  oi  England  was  outraged,  if  a  sovereign  w^ere 
to  dismiss  a  ministry  at  mere  pleasure,  or  to  retain  it  in  despite 
of  the  expressed  wish  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  manners  of  William  IV.  had  been,  like  those  of  most 
of  his  brothers,  somewhat  rough  and  overbearing.  He  had 
been  an  unmanageable  naval  officer.  He  had  made  himself 
unpopular  while  Duke  of  Clarence  by  his  strenuous  opposi- 
tion to  some  of  the  measures  which  were  especially  desired 
by  all  the  enlightenment  of  the  country.  He  was,  for  example, 
a  determined  opponent  of  the  measures  for  the  abolition  of 
the  slave  trade.  But  William  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
men  whom  increased  responsibility  improves.  He  was  far 
better  as  a  king  than  as  a  piince.  He  proved  that  he  was  able 
at  least  to  understand  that  first  duty  of  a  constitutional 
sovereign  which,  to  the  last  day  of  his  active  life,  his  father, 

1 


2  A   SHORT  in  STORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      cii.  i. 

(reorge  III.,  never  could  be  brought  to  comprehend — that  the 
personal  predilections  and  prejudices  of  the  King  must  some- 
times give  way  to  the  public  interest.  We  must  judge  William 
by  the  reigns  that  went  before,  and  not  the  reign  that  came 
after  him,  and  admit  that  on  the  whole  he  was  better  than  his 
education,  his  early  opportunities,  and  his  early  promise. 

William  IV.  (tliird  son  of  George  III.)  had  left  no  children 
who  could  have  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  the  crown  passed 
therefore  to  the  daughter  of  his  brother  (fourth  son  of  George), 
the  Duke  of  Kent.  /  This  was  the  Princess  Alexandrina  Victoria, 
who  was  born  at  Kensington  Palace  on  May  24,  1819.  The 
Princess  was  therefore  at  this  time  little  more  than  eighteen 
years  of  age.  The  Duke  of  Kent  died  a  few  months  after  the 
birth  of  his  daughter,  and  the  child  was  brought  up  under  the 
care  of  his  widow.  She  was  well  brought  up  :  both  as  regards 
her  intellect  and  her  character — her  training  was  excellent. 
She  was  taught  to  be  self-reliant,  brave,  and  systematical. 
Prudence  and  economy  were  inculcated  on  her  as  though  she 
had  been  born  to  be  poor.  One  is  not  generally  inclmed  to 
attach  much  importance  to  what  historians  tell  us  of  the 
education  of  contemporary  princes  or  princesses ;  but  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Princess  Victoria  was  trained  for 
intelligence  and  goodness.  / 

There  is  a  pretty  description  given  by  Miss  Wynn  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  young  sovereign  received  the  news  of 
her  accession  to  a  throne.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Dr.  Howley,  and  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  the  Marquis  of 
Conyngham,  left  Windsor  for  Kensington  Palace,  where  the 
Princess  Victoria  had  been  residing,  to  inform  her  of  the 
King's  death.  It  was  two  hours  after  midnight  when  they 
started,  and  they  did  not  reach  Kensington  until  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  *  They  knocked,  they  rang,  they  thumped 
for  a  considerable  time  before  they  could  rouse  the  porter  at 
the  gate ;  they  were  again  kept  waiting  in  the  courtyard,  then 
turned  into  one  of  the  lower  rooms,  where  they  seemed 
forgotten  by  everybody.  They  rang  the  bell,  and  desired  that 
the  attendant  of  the  Princess  Victoria  might  be  sent  to 
inform  her  Pioyal  Highness  that  they  requested  an  audience 
on  business  of  importance.  After  anotlier  delay,  and  another 
ringing  to  inquire  the  cause,  the  attendant  was  summoned, 
who  stated  that  the  Princess  was  in  such  a  sweet  sleep  that 
Bhe  could  not  venture  to  disturb  her.  Then  they  said,  "  We 
are  come  on  business  of  State  to  the  Queen,  and  even  her 


CH.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS,  3 

Bleep  must  give  way  to  that."  It  did ;  and  to  prove  that  she 
did  not  keep  them  waiting,  in  a  few  minutes  she  came  into 
the  room  in  a  loose  white  nightgown  and  shawl,  her  nightcap 
thrown  off,  and  her  hair  falling  upon  her  shoulders,  her  feet 
in  slippers,  tears  in  her  eyes,  but  perfectly  collected  and 
dignified.'  The  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Melbourne,  was  presently 
sent  for,  and  a  meeting  of  the  Privy  Council  summoned  for 
eleven  o'clock,  when  the  Lord  Chancellor  administered  the 
usual  oaths  to  the  Queen,  and  her  Majesty  received  in  return 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  of  the  Cabinet  mmisters  and  other 
privy  councillors  present. 

The  interest  or  curiosity  with  which  the  demeanour  of  the 
young  Queen  was  watched  was  all  the  keener  because  the 
world  in  general  Imew  so  little  about  her.  Not  merely  was 
the  world  in  general  thus  ignorant,  but  even  the  statesmen 
and  officials  in  closest  communication  with  court  circles  were 
in  almost  absolute  ignorance.  The  yomig  Queen  had  been 
previously  kept  in  such  seclusion  by  her  mother,  that  '  not 
one  of  her  acquaintance,  none  of  the  attendants  at  Kensing- 
ton, not  even  the  Duchess  of  Northumberland,  her  governess, 
have  any  idea  what  she  is  or  what  she  promises  to  be.' 
There  was  enough  in  the  court  of  the  two  sovereigns  who 
went  before  Queen  Victoria  to  justify  any  strictness  of  seclu- 
sion which  the  Duchess  of  Kent  might  desire  for  her 
daughter.  No  one  can  read  even  the  most  favourable  de- 
scriptions given  by  contemporaries  of  the  manners  of  those 
two  courts  without  feeling  grateful  to  the  Duchess  ol  Kent 
for  resolving  that  her  daughter  should  see  as  little  as  possible 
of  their  ways  and  their  company. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  any  formal  description  of  the 
proclamation  of  the  Queen,  her  appearance  for  the  first  time 
on  the  throne  in  the  House  of  Lords  when  she  prorogued 
Parliament  in  person,  and  even  the  gorgeous  festival  of  her 
coronation,  which  took  place  on  June  28,  in  the  follo^\ung 
year,  1838.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  well  worthy  of  note,  amid 
whatever  records  of  court  ceremonial  and  of  political  change, 
that  a  few  days  after  the  accession  of  the  Queen,  Mr.  Monte- 
fiore  was  elected  Sheriff  of  London,  the  first  Jew  who  had  ever 
been  chosen  for  that  office  ;  and  that  he  received  knighthood 
at  the  hands  of  her  Majesty  when  she  visited  the  City  on  the 
following  Lord  Mayor's  day.  He  was  the  first  Jew  whom 
royalty  had  honoured  in  this  country  since  the  good  old  times 
when  royalty  was  pleased  to  borrow  the  Jew's  money,  or  order 


4  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVN  TIMES,      CH.  i. 

instead  the  extraction  of  his  teeth.  The  expansion  of  the 
principle  of  rehgious  hberty  and  equahty  which  has  been  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  characteristics  of  the  reign  of  Queen 
Victoria,  could  hardly  have  been  more  becomingly  inaugurated 
than  by  the  compliment  which  sovereign  and  city  paid  to  Sir  / 
Moses  Montefiore. 

The  first  signature  attached  to  the  Act  of  Allegiance 
presented  to  the  Queen  at  Kensington  Palace  was  that  of  her 
eldest  surviving  uncle,  Ernest,  Duke  of  Cumberland.  The 
fact  may  be  taken  as  an  excuse  for  introducing  a  few  words 
here  to  record  the  severance  of  the  connection  which  had 
existed  for  some  generations  between  this  country  and 
Hanover.  The  connection  was  only  personal,  the  Hanoverian 
kings  of  England  being  also  by  succession  sovereigns  of 
Hanover.  The  crown  of  Hanover  was  limited  in  its  descent  to 
the  male  line,  and  it  passed  on  the  death  of  William  IV.  to  hi« 
eldest  surviving  brother,  Ernest,  Duke  of  Cumberland.  The 
change  was  in  almost  every  way  satisfactory  to  the  English 
people.  The  indirect  connection  between  England  and  Han- 
over had  at  no  time  been  a  matter  of  gratification  to  the  public 
of  this  country,  and  Englishmen  were  not  by  any  m-eans  sorry 
to  be  rid  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  Not  many  of  George 
in.'s  sons  were  popular;  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was 
probably  the  least  popular  of  all.  His  manners  were  rude, 
overbearing,  and  sometimes  even  brutal.  Eumour  not  un- 
naturally exaggerated  his  defects,  and  in  the  mouths  of  many 
his  name  was  the  symbol  of  the  darkest  and  fiercest  passions, 
and  even  crimes.  Some  of  the  popular  reports  with  regard 
to  him  had  their  foundation  only  in  the  common  detestation 
of  his  character  and  dread  of  his  influence.  But  it  is  certain 
that  he  was  profligate,  selfish,  overbearing  and  quarrelsome. 

It  was  felt  in  England  that  the  mere  departure  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  from  this  country  Avould  have  made  the 
severance  of  the  connection  with  Hanover  desirable,  even  if 
it  had  not  been  in  other  ways  an  advantage  to  us.  Later 
times  have  shown  how  much  we  have  gained  by  the  separa- 
tion. It  would  have  been  exceedingly  inconvenient,  to  say 
the  least,  if  the  crown  worn  by  a  sovereign  of  England  had 
been  hazarded  in  the  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia  in 
18GG.  Our  reigning  family  must  have  seemed  to  sufler  in 
dignity  if  that  crown  had  been  roughly  knocked  off  the  head 
of  its  wearer  wlio  happened  to  be  an  English  sovereign  ;  and 
it  would  have  been  absurd  to  expect  that  the  English  people 


CH.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS.  5 

could  enf?a{]re  in  a  quarrel  with  wliicli  their  interests  and 
honour  had  absolutely  nothing  to  do,  for  the  sake  of  a  mero 
family  possession  of  their  ruling  house. 

Lord  Melbourne  was  the  first  Minister  of  the  Crown  when 
the  Queen  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He  was  a  man  who  then 
and  always  after  made  himself  particularly  dear  to  the  Queen, 
and  for  wdiom  she  had  the  strongest  regard.  He  was  of  kindly, 
somewhat  indolent  nature ;  fair  and  even  generous  towards 
his  political  opponents  ;  of  the  most  genial  disposition  towards 
his  friends.  He  was  emphatically  not  a  strong  man.  He  wag 
not  a  man  to  make  good  grow  where  it  was  not  already  growing. 
He  was  a  kmdly  counsellor  to  a  young  Queen  ;  and  happily 
for  herself  the  young  Queen  m  this  case  had  strong  clear  sense 
enough  of  her  o^vn  not  to  be  absolutely  dependent  on  any  counsel. 
Lord  Melbourne  was  not  a  statesman.  His  best  qualities, 
personal  kindness  and  good  nature  apart,  were  purely  negative. 
He  was  unfortunately  not  content  even  with  the  rej)utation  for 
a  sort  of  indolent  good  nature  which  he  might  have  well  de- 
served. He  strove  to  make  himself  appear  hopelessly  idle, 
trivial,  and  careless.  When  he  really  was  serious  and  earnest 
he  seemed  to  make  it  his  busmess  to  look  like  one  in  wdiom 
no  human  affairs  could  call  up  a  gleam  of  interest.  We  have 
amusing  pictures  of  him  as  he  occupied  himself  in  blowing  a 
feather  or  nursing  a  sofa-cushion  Vvdiile  receiving  an  important 
and  perhaps  highly  sensitive  deputation  from  this  or  that 
commercial  *  interest.'  Those  who  knew  him  insisted  that  he 
really  was  listening  with  all  his  might  and  main  ;  that  he  had 
sat  up  the  whole  night  before  studying  the  question  which 
he  seemed  to  think  so  unworthy  of  any  attention ;  and  that  so 
far  from  being  v.-hoUy  absorbed  in  his  trifles,  he  was  at  very 
great  pains  to  keep  up  the  appearance  of  a  trifier. 

Such  a  masquerading  might  perhaps  have  been  excusable, 
or  even  attractive,  in  the  case  of  a  man  of  really  brilliant  and 
commanding  talents.  But  in  Lord  Melbourne's  case  the 
affectation  had  no  such  excuse  or  happy  effect.  He  was  a 
poor  speaker,  only  fitted  to  rule  in  the  quietest  times.  Debates 
were  then  conducted  with  a  bitterness  of  personality  unknown, 
or  at  all  events  very  rarely  known,  in  our  days.  Even  in  the 
House  of  Lords  language  was  often  interchanged  of  the  most 
virulent  hostility. 

Lord  Melbourne's  constant  attendance  on  the  young  Queen 
was  regarded  with  keen  jealousy  and  dissatisfaction.  Accord- 
ing to  some  critics  the  Prime  Minister  was  endeavouring  to 


6  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR    OWN  T'lMES.       CH.  l 

inspire  her  with  all  his  owii  gay  heedlessness  of  character  and 
temperament.  According  to  others,  Lord  Melbourne's  purpose 
was  to  make  himself  agreeable  and  indispensable  to  the  Queen ; 
to  surround  her  with  his  friends,  relations,  and  creatures,  and 
thus  to  get  a  lifelong  hold  of  power  in  England,  in  defiance  of 
political  changes  and  parties.  But  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  greedy  of  power,  or  to  have  used  any  unfair  means  of 
getting  or  keeping  it.  The  character  of  the  young  Sovereign 
seems  to  have  impressed  him  deeply.  His  real  or  affected  levity 
gave  way  to  a  genuine  and  lasting  desire  to  make  lier  life  as 
happy  and  her  reign  as  successful  as  he  could.  The  Queen 
always  felt  the  warmest  affection  and  gratitude  for  him. 
Still,  it  is  certain  that  the  Queen's  Prime  Minister  was  by  no 
means  a  popular  man  at  the  time  of  her  accession.  When 
the  new  reign  began,  the  Ministry  had  two  enemies  or  critics 
in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  most  formidable  character. 
Either  alone  would  have  been  a  trouble  to  a  minister  of  far 
stronger  mould  than  Lord  Melbourne ;  but  circumstances 
threw  them  both  for  the  moment  into  a  chance  alliance  against 
him. 

One  of  these  w^as  Lord  Brougham.  No  character  stronger 
and  stranger  than  his  is  described  in  the  modern  history 
of  England.  He  was  gifted  with  the  most  varied  and  strik- 
ing talents,  and  with  a  capacity  for  labour  which  sometimes 
seemed  almost  superhuman.  Not  merely  had  he  the  capacity 
for  labour,  but  he  appeared  to  have  a  positive  passion  for  work. 
His  restless  energy  seemed  as  if  it  must  stretch  itself  out  on 
every  side  seeking  new  fields  of  conquest.  The  study  that 
Avas  enough  to  occupy  the  whole  time  and  wear  out  the 
frame  of  other  men  was  only  recreation  to  him.  His  physical 
strength  never  gave  way.  His  high  spirits  never  deserted  him. 
His  self-confidence  was  boundless.  He  thought  he  knew 
everything  and  could  do  everything  better  than  any  other  man. 
His  vanity  was  overweening,  and  made  him  ridiculous  almost 
as  often  and  as  much  as  his  genius  made  him  admired.  '  If 
Brougham  knew  a  little  of  law,'  said  O'Connell,  when  the 
former  became  Lord  Chancellor,  '  he  would  know  a  little  of 
everything.'  The  anecdote  is  told  in  another  way  too,  which 
perhaps  makes  it  even  more  piquant.  '  The  new  Lord  Chan- 
cellor knows  a  little  of  everything  in  the  world — even  of 
law.'  He  was  beyond  doubt  a  great  Parliamentary  orator, 
although  not  an  orator  of  the  highest  class.  Brougham's 
action  was  wild,  and  sometimes  even  furious  ;  his  gestures  were 


cir.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS,  7 

singularly  ungraceful ;  his  manners  were  grotesque ;  but  of 
his  power  over  his  hearers  there  could  be  no  doubt.  That  power 
remained  with  him  until  a  far  later  date  ;  and  long  after  the 
years  when  men  usually  continue  to  take  part  in  political  debate, 
Lord  Brougham  could  be  impassioned,  impressive,  and  even 
overwhelming.  If  his  talents  were  great,  if  his  personal  vanity 
was  immense,  let  it  be  said  that  his  services  to  the  cause  of 
human  freedom  and  education  were  simply  inestimable.  As  an 
opponent  of  slavery  in  the  colonies,  as  an  advocate  of  political 
reform  at  home,  of  law  reform,  of  popular  education,  of  religious 
equality,  he  had  worked  with  indomitable  zeal,  with  resistless 
passion,  and  with  splendid  success.  He  was  left  out  of  office 
on  the  reconstruction  of  the  Whig  Ministry  in  April  1835,  and 
he  passed  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  into  the  position  ot  an 
mdependent  or  unattached  critic  of  the  measures  and  policy 
of  other  men.  It  has  never  been  clearly  known  why  the 
Whigs  so  suddenly  threw  over  Brougham.  The  common 
belief  is  that  his  eccentricities  and  his  almost  savage  temper 
made  him  intolerable  in  a  cabinet.  It  has  been  darkly  hinted 
that  for  a  while  his  intellect  was  actually  under  a  cloud,  as 
people  said  that  of  Chatham  was  during  a  momentous  season. 
Lord  Brougham  was  not  a  man  likely  to  forget  or  forgive 
the  wrong  which  he  must  have  believed  that  he  had  sustained 
at  the  hands  of  the  Whigs.  He  became  the  fiercest  and  most 
formidable  of  Lord  Melbourne's  hostile  critics. 

The  other  great  opponent  was  Lord  Lyndhurst.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  effective  Parliamentary  debater^  of 
his  time.  His  style  was  smgularly  and  even  severely 
clear,  direct  and  pure  ;  his  manner  was  easy  and  grace- 
ful ;  his  voice  remarkably  sweet  and  strong.  Nothing 
could  have  been  in  greater  contrast  than  his  clear,  correct, 
nervous  argument,  and  the  impassioned  invectives  and  over- 
whelming strength  of  Brougham.  Lyndhurst  had  an  immense 
capacity  for  work,  when  the  work  had  to  be  done  ;  but  his 
natural  tendency  was  as  distinctly  towards  indolence  as 
Brougham's  was  towards  unresting  activity.  Nor  were  Lynd- 
hurst's  political  convictions  ever  very  clear.  By  the  habitude 
of  associating  with  the  Tories,  and  receiving  office  from  them, 
and  speakmg  for  them,  and  attackmg  their  enemies  with 
argument  and  sarcasm,  Lyndliurst  finally  settled  down  into 
all  the  ways  of  Toryism.  But  nothing  in  his  varied  history 
showed  that  he  had  any  particular  preference  that  w^ay  ;  and 
there  were  many  passages  in  his  career  when  it  would  seem 


8  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  I. 

as  if  a  turn  of  cliance  decided  what  part  of  political  life  he 
was  to  follow.  As  a  keen  debater  lie  was  perhaps  hardly  ever 
excelled  in  Parhament ;  but  he  had  neither  the  passion  nor  the 
genius  of  the  orator  ;  and  his  capacity  was  narrow  indeed  in 
its  range  when  compared  with  the  astonishing  versatility  and 
omnivorous  mental  activity  of  Brougham.  As  a  speaker  he 
was  always  equal.  He  seemed  to  know  no  varying  moods  or 
fits  of  mental  lassitude.  Whenever  he  spoke  he  reached  at 
once  the  same  high  level  as  a  debater.  The  very  fact  may 
in  itself  perhaps  be  taken  as  conclusive  evidence  that  he  was 
not  an  orator.  The  higher  qualities  of  the  orator  are  no  more 
to  be  summoned  at  will  than  those  of  the  poet. 

These  two  men  were  without  any  comparison  the  two  lead- 
ing debaters  m  the  House  of  Lords.  Lord  Melbourne  had 
not  at  that  time  in  the  Upper  House  a  single  man  of  first 
class  or  even  of  second  class  debating  power  on  the  bench  of 
the  ministry.  An  able  writer  has  well  remarked  that  the 
position  of  the  Ministry  in  the  House  of  Lords  might  be  com- 
pared to  that  of  a  water-logged  wreck  into  which  enemies 
from  all  quarters  are  pouring  their  broadsides. 

The  law  at  that  time  made  it  necessary  that  a  new  Parlia- 
ment should  be  summoned  on  the  accession  of  the  new 
Sovereign.  The  result  was  not  a  very  marked  alteration 
in  the  condition  of  parties ;  but  on  the  whole  the  ad- 
vantage was  with  the  Tories.  Somewhere  about  this  time, 
it  may  be  remarked,  the  use  of  the  word  *  Conservative  * 
to  describe  the  latter  political  party  first  came  into  fashion. 
During  the  elections  for  the  new  Parliament,  Lord  John 
Eussell,  speaking  at  a  public  dinner  at  Stroud,  made  allusion 
to  the  new  name  which  his  opponents  were  beginning  to 
affect  for  their  party.  '  If  that,'  he  said,  *  is  the  name  that 
pleases  them,  if  they  say  that  the  old  distinction  of  Whig  and 
Tory  should  no  longer  be  kept  up,  I  am  ready,  in  opposition 
to  their  name  of  Conservative,  to  take  the  name  of  Eeformer, 
and  to  stand  by  that  opposition.' 

The  new  Parliament  on  its  assembling  seems  to  have 
gathered  in  the  Commons  an  unusually  large  number  of  gifted 
and  promising  men.  Mr.  Grote,  the  historian  of  Greece,  sat 
for  the  City  of  London.  The  late  Lord  Lytton.  then  Mr. 
Edward  Lytton  Bulwer,  had  a  seat,  an  advanced  Radical  at 
that  day.  Mr.  Disraeli  came  then  into  Parliament  for  the  first 
time.  Charles  Duller,  full  of  high  spirits,  brilliant  humour, 
and  the  very  mspiration  of  keen  good  sense,  seemed  on  the  sure 


cii.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS.  9 

way  to  tliat  career  of  renown  which  a  premature  death  cut 
short.  Sir  Wilham  Molesworth  was  an  excellent  type  of  the 
school  which  in  later  days  was  called  the  Philosophical  Kadical. 
Another  distinguished  member  of  the  same  school,  Mr.  Eoe- 
buck,  had  lost  his  seat,  and  was  for  the  moment  an  outsider. 
Mr.  Gladstone  had  been  already  five  years  in  Parliament.  The 
late  Lord  Carlisle,  then  Lord  Morpeth,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
graceful  specimen  of  the  literary  and  artistic  young  nobleman, 
who  also  cultivates  a  little  politics  for  his  intellectual  amuse- 
ment. Lord  John  Eussell  had  but  lately  begun  his  career  as 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  Palmerston  was 
Foreign  Secretary,  but  had  not  even  then  got  the  credit  of  the 
great  ability  which  he  possessed.  Only  those  who  knew  him 
very  well  had  any  idea  of  the  capacity  for  governing  Parliament 
and  the  country  which  he  was  soon  afterwards  to  display.  Sir 
Kobert  Peel  v/as  leader  of  the  Conservative  party.  Lord  Stan- 
ley, the  late  Lord  Derby,  was  still  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  had  not  long  before  broken  definitely  with  the  Whigs  on 
the  question  of  the  Irish  ecclesiastical  establishment,  and  had 
passed  over  to  that  Conservative  party  of  which  he  afterwards 
became  the  most  influential  leader,  and  the  most  powerful 
Parliamentary  orator. 

The  ministry  was  not  very  strong  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Its  adherents  v/ere  but  loosely  held  together.  Sir  Eobert 
Peel,  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  was  by  far  the  most 
powerful  man  in  the  House.  Added  to  his  great  qualities  as  an 
administrator  and  a  Parliamentary  debater,  he  had  the  virtue, 
then  very  rare  among  Conservative  statesmen,  of  being  a  sound 
and  clear  financier,  with  a  good  grasp  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  political  economy.  His  high  austere  character  made 
him  respected  by  opponents  as  well  as  by  friends.  He  had  not 
perhaps  many  intimate  friends.  His  temperament  was  cold, 
or  at  least  its  heat  was  self-contained  ;  he  threw  out  no  genial 
glow  to  those  around  him.  He  was  by  nature  a  reserved  and 
shy  man,  in  whose  manners  shyness  took  the  form  of  pompous- 
ness  and  coldness.  It  is  certain  that  he  had  warm  and  gene- 
rous feelings,  but  his  very  sensitiveness  only  led  him  to  disguise 
them.  The  contrast  between  his  emotions  and  his  lack  of 
demonstrativeness  created  in  him  a  constant  artificiality  which 
often  seemed  mere  awkwardness.  It  was  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons that  his  real  genius  and  character  displayed  themselves. 
Peel  was  apertect  master  01  the  House  01  Commons.  He  was 
as  great  an  orator  as  any  man  could  be  who  addresses  himseh 

1* 


lo  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  i. 

to  the  House  of  Commons,  its  ways  and  its  purposes  alonfe.. 
Sir  Eobert  Peel  had  Kttle  imagination,  and  ahnost  none  of  that 
passion  which  in  eloquence  sometimes  supplies  its  place.  His 
style  was  clear,  strong,  and  stately  ;  full  of  various  argument 
and  apt  illustration  drawn  from  books  and  from  the  world  of 
politics  and  commerce.  He  followed  a  difficult  argument  home 
to  its  utter  conclusions  ;  and  if  it  had  in  it  any  lurking  fallacy, 
he  brought  out  the  weakness  into  the  clearest  light,  often  with 
a  happy  touch  of  humour  and  quiet  sarcasm.  His  speeches 
might  be  described  as  the  very  perfection  of  good  sense  and 
high  principle  clothed  in  the  most  impressive  language.  But 
they  were  something  more  peculiar  than  this^  for  they  were  so 
constructed,  in  their  argument  and  their  style  alike,  as  to  touch 
the  very  core  of  the  intelligence  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
They  told  of  the  feelings  and  the  inspiration  of  Parliament 
as  the  ballad-music  of  a  country  tells  of  its  scenery  and  its 
national  sentiments. 

Lord  Stanley  was  a  far  more  energetic  and  impassioned 
speaker  than  Sir  Kobert  Peel,  and  perhaps  occasionally,  in  his 
later  career,  came  now  and  then  nearer  to  the  height  of  genuine 
oratory.  But  Lord  Stanley  was  little  more  than  a  splendid 
Parliamentary  partisan,  even  vv'hen,  long  after,  he  was  Prime 
Minister  of  England.  He  had  very  little  indeed  of  that  class 
of  information  v/hich  the  modern  world  requires  of  its  states- 
men and  leaders.  Of  political  economy,  of  finance,  of  the 
development  and  the  discoveries  of  modern  science,  he  knew 
almost  as  little  as  it  is  possible  for  an  able  and  energetic  man 
to  know  who  lives  in  the  throng  of  active  life  and  hears  v/hat 
people  are  talking  of  around  him.  He  once  said  good- 
Immouredly  of  hiniself,  that  he  was  brought  up  in  the  pre- 
scientific  period.  He  had,  in  fact,  what  would  have  been  called 
at  an  earlier  day  an  elegant  scholarship ;  he  had  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  the  politics  of  liis  time  in  most  European  coun- 
tries, an  energetic  intrepid  spirit,  and  with  him  the  science  of 
Parliamentary  debate  seemed  to  be  an  instinct.  There  was 
no  speaker  on  the  ministerial  benches  at  that  time  who  could 
for  a  moment  be  compared  with  him. 

Lord  John  Eussell,  who  had  the  leadership  of  the  party  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  was  really  a  much  stronger  man  tlian 
he  seemed  to  be.  He  had  a  character  for  dauntless  courage 
and  confidence  among  his  friends ;  for  boundless  self-conceii 
among  his  enemies.  He  had  in  truth  much  less  genius  than 
his  friends  and  admirers  believed,  and  a  great  deal  more  of 


CH.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS.  21 

practical  strength  than  either  friends  or  foes  gave  him  credit  for. 
He  became,  not  indeed  an  orator,  but  a  very  keen  debater,  who 
was  especially  effective  m  a  cold  irritatmg  sarcasm  which 
penetrated  the  weakness  of  an  opponent's  argmnent  like  some 
dissolving  acid.  The  thin  bright  stream  of  argmnent  worked  its 
way  slowly  out  and  contrived  to  wear  a  path  for  itself  through 
obstacles  which  at  first  the  looker-on  might  have  felt  assured 
it  never  could  penetrate. 

Our  English  system  of  government  by  party  makes  the 
history  of  Parliament  seem  like  that  of  a  succession  of  great 
political  duels.  Two  men  stand  constantly  confronted  during 
a  series  of  years,  one  of  whom  is  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, while  the  other  is  at  the  head  of  the  Opposition.  They 
change  places  with  each  victory.  The  conqueror  goes  into 
office  ;  the  conquered  into  opposition.  It  has  often  happened 
that  the  two  leading  opponents  are  men  of  intellectual  and 
oratorical  powers  so  fairly  balanced  that  their  followers  may 
well  dispute  among  themselves  as  to  the  superiority  of  their 
respective  chiefs,  and  that  the  public  in  general  may  become 
divided  into  two  schools  not  merely  political  but  even  critical, 
according  to  their  partiality  for  one  or  the  other.  For  many 
years  Lord  John  Kussell  and  Sir  Kobert  Peel  stood  thus  op- 
posed. Peel  had  by  far  the  more  original  mind,  and  Lord  John 
Eussell  never  obtained  so  great  an  influence  over  the  House 
of  Commons  as  that  which  his  rival  long  enjoyed.  Lord  John 
Piussell  was  a  born  reformer.  He  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Fox. 
He  was  cradled  in  the  principles  of  Liberalism.  He  held 
faithfully  to  his  creed ;  he  was  one  of  its  boldest  and  keenest 
champions.  He  had  great  advantages  over  Peel,  in  the  mere 
fact  that  he  had  begun  his  education  m  a  more  enlightened 
school.  But  he  wanted  passion  quite  as  much  as  Peel  did,  and 
remained  still  farther  than  Peel  below  the  level  of  the  genume 
orator. 

After  the  chiefs  of  Ministry  and  of  Opposition,  the  most 
conspicuous  figure  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  the  colossal 
form  of  O'Connell,  the  great  Irish  agitator,  of  whom  w^e  shall 
hear  a  good  deal  more.  Among  the  foremost  orators  of  the 
House  at  that  time  was  O'Connell's  impassioned  lieutenant, 
Eichard  Lalor  Shell. 

A  reign  which  saw  in  its  earliest  years  the  application  of  j 
the  electric  current  to  the  task  of  transmitting  messages,  the 
first  successful  attempts  to  make  use  of  steam  for  the  business 
of  Transatlantic  navigation,  the  general  development  of  tha 


t 


12  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OJVN  TIMES.       cii.  i. 

railway  system  all  over  these  countries,  and  the  introduction 
of  the  penny  post,  must  be  considered  to  have  obtained  for 
itself,  had  it  secured  no  other  memorials,  an  abiding  place  in 
history.  The  history  of  the  past  forty  or  fifty  years  is  almost 
absolutely  distinct  from  that  of  any  preceding  period.  In  all 
that  part  of  our  social  life  which  is  affected  by  industrial  and 
mechanical  appliances  we  see  a  complete  revolution.  A  man 
of  the  present  day  suddenly  thrust  back  fifty  years  in  life, 
would  find  himself  almost  as  awkwardly  unsuitcd  to  tho  ways 
of  that  time  as  if  he  were  sent  back  to  the  age  when  the 
Romans  occupied  Britain.  He  would  find  himself  harassed 
at  every  step  he  took.  He  could  do  hardly  anything  as  he  does 
it  to-day.  Sir  Eobert  Peel  travelled  from  Eome  to  London 
to  assume  office  as  Prime  Minister,  exactly  as  Constantine 
travelled  from  York  to  Piome  to  become  Emperor.  Each 
traveller  had  all  that  sails  and  horses  could  do  for  him,  aiid- 
no  more.  A  few  years  later  Peel  might  have  reached  London 
from  Eome  in  some  forty-eight  hours. 

It  is  a  somewhat  curious  coincidence,  that  in  the  year  when 
Professor  Wheatstone  and  Mr.  Cooke  took  out  their  first  patent 
*  for  improvements  in  giving  signals  and  sounding  alarms  in 
distant  places  by  means  of  electric  currents  transmitted 
through  metallic  circuit,'  Professor  Morse,  the  American 
electrician,  applied  to  Congress  for  aid  in  the  construction  and 
carrying  on  of  a  small  electric  telegraph  to  convey  messages 
a  short  distance,  and  made  the  application  without  success. 
In  the  following  year  he  came  to  this  country  to  obtain  a 
patent  for  his  invention ;  but  he  was  refused.  He  had  come 
too  late.  Our  own  countrymen  w^re  beforehand  with  him. 
Very  soon  after  we  find  experiments  made  with  the  electric 
telegraph  between  Euston  Square  and  Camden  Town.  The 
London  and  Birmingham  Eailway  was  opened  through  its 
whole  length  in  1838.  The  Liverpool  and  Preston  line  was 
opened  in  the  same  year.  The  Liverpool  and  Birmingham 
had  been  opened  in  the  year  before  ;  the  London  and  Croydon 
was  opened  the  year  after.  The  Act  for  the  transmission  of 
the  mails  by  railways  was  passed  in  1838.  In  the  same  year 
it  was  noted  as  an  unparalleled,  and  to  many  an  almost  mcre- 
dible,  triumph  of  human  energy  and  science  over  time  and  space, 
that  a  locomotive  had  been  able  to  travel  at  a  speed  of  thirty- 
seven  miles  an  hour. 

Steam  communication  was  successfully  established  between 
England  and  the  United  States.  The  Sirius,  the  Great  Westcnit 


CH.  I.  A  NEW  REIGN  OPENS.  13 

and  the  Boyal  William  accomplished  voyages  between  New 
York  and  this  country  in  the  early  part  of  1838.     The  Great 
Western  crossed  the  ocean  from  Bristol  to  New  York  in  fifteen 
days.     She  was  followed  by  the  Siriics,  which  left  Cork  for 
New  York,  and  made  the  passage  in  seventeen  days.     The 
controversy  as  to  the  possibility  of  such  voyages  had  no 
reference  to  the  actual  safety  of  such  an  experiment.     Durin^j 
seven  years  the  mails  for  the  Mediterranean  had  been  de- 
spatched by  means  of  steamers.     Neither  the  Sirius  nor  the 
Great  Western  was  the  first  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic  by 
means  of  steam  propulsion.     Nearly  twenty  years  before,  a 
vessel  called  the  Savannah,  built  at  New  York,  crossed  the 
ocean  to  Liverpool,  and  a  voyage  had  been  made  romid  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  more  lately  still  by  a  steamship.     These 
expeditions,  however,  had  really  little  or  nothing  to  do  with 
the  problem  which  was  solved  by  the  voyages  of  the  Sirius  and 
the  Great  Western.     In  the  former  instances  the  vessel  made 
as  much  use  of  her  steam  propulsion  as  she  could,  but  she  had 
to  rely  a  good  deal  on  her  capacity  as  a  sailer.     This  was  quite 
a  different  thing  from  the  enterprise  of  the  Sirius  and  the  Great 
Western,  which  was  to  cross  the  ocean  by  steam  propulsion 
only.     It  is  evident  that  so  long  as  the  steam  power  was  to  be 
used  only  as  an  auxiliary,  it  would  be  impossible  to  reckon  on 
speed   and   certainty  of  arrival.     The  doubt  was  whether  a 
steamer  could  carry,  with  her  cargo  and  passengers,  fuel  enough 
to  serve  for  the  whole  of  her  voyage  across  the  Atlantic.     The 
expeditions  of  the  Sirius  and  the  Great  Western  settled  the 
whole  question.     Two  years  after  the  Great  Western  went  out 
from  Bristol  to  New  York  the  Cunard  line  of  steamers  was  esta- 
blished.    The  steam  communication  between  Liverpool  and 
New  York  became  thenceforth  as  regular  and  as  unvarying  a 
part  of  the  business  of  commerce  as  the  journeys  of  the  trains 
on  the  Great  Western  Railway  between  London  and  Bristol. 

Up  to  this  time  the  rates  of  postage  were  very  high,  and 
varied  both  as  to  distance  and  as  to  the  weight  and  even  the  size 
or  the  shape  of  a  letter.  The  average  postage  on  every  charge- 
able letter  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  was  sixpence 
farthing.  A  letter  from  London  to  Brighton  cost  eightpence ; 
to  Aberdeen  one  shilling  and  threepence  halfpenny ;  to  Beliast 
one  shilling  and  fourpence.  Nor  was  this  all ;  for  if  the  letter 
were  written  on  more  than  one  sheet  of  paper,  it  came  under 
the  operation  of  a  higher  scale  of  charge.  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment and  members  of  the  Government  had  the  privilege  oi 


14  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR    OIVN  TIMES.       cir.  I. 

franking  letters.  The  franking  privilege  consisted  in  the  right 
of  the  privileged  person  to  send  his  own  or  any  other  person's 
letters  through  the  post  free  of  charge  by  merely  writing  hig 
name  on  the  outside.  This  meant,  in  plain  words,  that  the 
letters  of  the  class  who  could  best  afford  to  pay  for  them  went 
free  of  charge,  and  that  those  who  could  least  afford  to  pay 
had  to  pay  double — the  expense,  that  is  to  say,  of  carrying 
their  own  letters  and  the  letters  of  the  privileged  and  exempt. 

Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Rowland)  Hill  is  the  man  to  whom 
this  country,  and  indeed  all  civilisation,  owes  the  adoption  of 
the  cheap  and  uniform  system.  His  plan  has  been  adopted 
by  every  State  which  professes  to  have  a  postal  system  at  all. 
Mr.  Hill  belonged  to  a  remarkable  family.  His  father,  Thomag 
Wright  Hill,  w?,s  a  teacher,  a  man  of  advanced  and  practical 
views  in  popular  education,  a  devoted  lover  of  science,  an  advo- 
cate of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  a  sort  of  celebrity  in  the 
Birmingham  of  his  day.  He  had  five  sons,  every  one  of  whom 
made  himself  more  or  less  conspicuous  as  a  practical  reformer 
in  one  path  or  another.  The  eldest  of  the  sons  was  Matthew 
Davenport  Hill,  the  philanthropic  Recorder  of  Birmingham, 
who  did  so  much  for  prison  reform  and  for  the  reclamation  of 
juvenile  offenders.  The  third  son  was  Rowland  Hill,  the 
author  of  the  cheap  postal  system.  Rowland  Hill  when  a 
little  weakly  child  began  to  show  some  such  precocious  love 
for  arithmetical  calculations  as  Pascal  showed  for  mathematics. 
His  favourite  amusement  as  a  child  was  to  lie  on  the  hearthrug 
and  count  up  figures  by  the  hour  together.  As  he  grew  np 
he  became  teacher  of  mathematics  in  his  father's  school. 
Afterwards  he  was  appointed  secretary  to  the  South  Australian 
Commission,  and  rendered  much  valuable  service  in  the  orga- 
nisation of  the  colony  of  South  Australia.  A  picturesque  and 
touching  little  illustration  of  the  veritable  hardships  of  the 
existing  system  seems  to  have  quickened  his  interest  in  Postal 
reform.     Miss  Martineau  thus  tells  the  story : — 

'  Coleridge,  wdien  a  young  man,  was  walking  through  the 
Lake  district,  when  he  one  day  saw  the  postman  deliver  a 
letter  to  a  woman  at  a  cottage  door.  The  woman  turned  it 
over  and  examined  it,  and  then  returned  it,  saying  she  could 
not  pay  the  postage,  which  w\as  a  shilling.  Hearing  that  the 
letter  was  from  her  brother,  Coleridge  paid  the  postage  in  spite 
of  the  manifest  unwillingness  of  the  woman.  As  soon  as  the 
postman  was  out  of  sight  she  showed  Coleridge  how  his  money 
had  been  wasied,  as  far  as  she  was  concerned.     The  sheet  waa 


nH.  I.  A   NEW  REIGN  OPENS,  I5 

blank.  There  was  an  agreement  between  her  brother  and 
herself  that  as  long  as  all  went  well  with  him  he  should  send 
a  blank  sheet  in  this  way  once  a  quarter  ;  and  she  thus  had 
tidings  of  him  without  expense  of  postage.  Most  persona 
would  have  remembered  this  incident  as  a  curious  story  to  tell ; 
but  there  was  one  mind  which  wakened  up  at  once  to  a 
sense  of  the  significance  of  the  fact.  It  struck  Mr.  Eowland 
Hill  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  in  a  system  which 
drove  a  brother  and  sister  to  cheating,  in  order  to  gratify  their 
desire  to  hear  of  one  another's  welfare.' 

Mr.  Hill  gradually  worked  out  for  himself  a  comprehensive 
Bcheme  of  reform.  He  put  it  before  the  world  early  in  1837. 
The  root  of  Mr.  Hill's  system  lay  in  the  fact,  made  evident 
by  him  beyond  dispute,  that  the  actual  cost  of  the  con- 
veyance of  letters  through  the  post  was  very  trifling,  and 
was  but  little  increased  by  the  distance  over  which  they  had 
to  be  carried.  His  proposal  was  therefore  that  the  rates  of 
postage  should  be  diminished  to  a  minimum ;  that  at  the 
same  time  the  speed  of  conveyance  should  be  increased,  and 
that  there  should  be  much  greater  frequency  of  despatch. 
He  recommended  the  uniform  charge  of  one  penny  the  half- 
ounce,  without  reference  to  the  distance  within  the  limits  of 
the  United  Kingdom  which  the  letter  had  to  be  carried. 

The  Post  Office  authorities  were  at  first  uncompromising 
in  their  opposition  to  the  scheme.  They  were  convinced 
that  it  must  involve  an  unbearable  loss  of  revenue.  But 
the  Government  took  up  the  scheme  with  some  spirit  and 
liberality.  Petitions  from  all  the  commercial  communities 
were  pouring  in  to  support  the  plan,  and  to  ask  that  at 
least  it  should  have  a  fair  trial.  The  Government  at  length 
determined  in  1839  to  bring  in  a  bill  which  should  provide 
for  the  almost  immediate  introduction  of  Mr.  Hill's  scheme, 
and  for  the  abolition  of  the  franking  system  except  in  the 
case  of  official  letters  actually  sent  on  business  directly  belong- 
ing to  her  Majesty's  service.  The  bill  declared,  as  an  intro- 
ductory step,  that  the  charge  for  postage  should  be  at  the  rate 
of  fourpence  for  each  letter  under  half  an  ounce  in  weight, 
irrespective  of  distance,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  King- 
dom. This,  however,  was  to  be  only  a  beginning ;  for  on 
January  10,  1840,  the  postage  was  fixed  at  the  uniform  rate  of 
one  penny  per  letter  of  not  more  than  half  an  ounce  in  weight. 
Some  idea  of  the  effect  it  has  produced  upon  the  postal  corre- 
spondence of  the  country  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that 


1 6  A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  il. 

in  1839,  the  last  _year  of  the  heavy  postage,  the  number  of 
letters  delivered  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  was  eighty-two 
millions,  which  included  some  five  millions  and  a  half  of 
franked  letters  returning  nothing  to  the  revenue  of  the  country  ; 
whereas,  in  1875,  more  than  a  thousand  millions  of  letters 
were  delivered  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  population 
during  the  same  time  had  not  nearly  doubled  itself. 


CHAPTER  IL 

SOME   TROUBLES   TO   THE    NEW   REIGN. 

The  new  Queen's  reign  opened  amid  many  grim  and  unpro- 
mising conditions  of  our  social  affairs.  The  winter  of  1837-8 
was  one  oi  unusual  severity  and  distress.  There  would  have 
been  much  discontent  and  grumbling  in  any  case  among  the 
class,  but  the  complaints  were  aggravated  by  a  common  belief 
that  the  young  Queen  was  wholly  under  the  influence  of  a 
frivolous  and  selfish  minister,  who  occupied  her  with  amuse- 
ments while  the  poor  were  starving.  It  does  not  appear  that 
there  was  at  any  time  the  slightest  justification  for  such  a 
belief ;  but  it  prevailed  among  the  working  classes  and  the 
poor  very  generally,  and  added  to  the  sufferings  of  genuine 
want  the  bitterness  of  imaginary  wrong. 

Only  a  few  weeks  after  the  coronation  of  the  Queen  a 
great  Radical  meeting  was  held  in  Birmingham.  A  manifesto 
was  adopted  there  which  afterwards  came  to  be  known  as  the 
Chartist  petition.  With  that  moment  Chartism  began  to  be 
one  of  the  most  disturbing  influences  of  the  political  life  of  the 
country.  For  ten  years  it  agitated  England.  It  might  have  been 
a  very  serious  danger  if  the  State  had  been  involved  in  any  ex- 
ternal difficulties.  It  was  backed  by  much  genuine  enthusiasm, 
passion  and  intelligence.  It  appealed  strongly  and  naturally  to 
whatever  there  was  of  discontent  among  the  working  classes. 
Its  fierce  and  fitful  flame  went  out  at  last  under  the  influence  of 
the  clear,  strong  and  steady  light  oi  political  reform  and  educa- 
tion. The  one  great  lesson  it  teaches  is,  that  political  agitation 
lives  and  is  formidable  only  by  virtue  of  what  is  reasonable  in 
its  demands.  Thousands  of  ignorant  and  miserable  men  all  over 
the  country  joined  the  Chartist  agitation  who  cared  nothing 
about  the  sul^stantial  value  of  its  political  claims.  They  were 
poor,  they  were  overvorked,  they  were  badly  paid,  their  lives 


CH.  11.       SOME   TROUBLES  TO  THE  NEW  REIGN,  V) 

were  altogether  wretched.  They  got  into  then'  heads  some  wild 
idea  that  the  People's  Charter  would  give  them  better  food  and 
wages  and  lighter  work  if  it  were  obtained,  and  that  for  that 
very  reason  the  aristocrats  and  the  officials  would  not  grant  it. 

The  Eeform  Bill  of  1832  had  done  great  things  for  the 
constitutional  system  of  England.  It  abolished  fifty-six  nomi- 
nation or  rotten  boroughs,  and  took  away  half  the  representa- 
tion from  thirty  others  ;  it  disposed  of  the  seats  thus  obtained  by 
giving  sixty-five  additional  representatives  to  the  counties,  and 
conferred  the  right  of  returning  members  on  Manchester, 
Leeds,  Birmingham,  and  some  thirty-nine  large  and  prosper- 
ous towns  which  had  previously  had  no  representation.  The  ; 
bill  introduced  a  lOZ.  household  qualification  for  boroughs,  and 
extended  the  county  franchise  to  leaseholders  and  copyholders. 
But  it  left  the  working  classes  almost  altogether  out  oi  tlie 
franchise.  It  broke  down  the  monopoly  which  the  aristocracy 
and  landed  classes  had  enjoyed,  and  admitted  the  middle 
classes  to  a  share  of  the  law-making  power,  but  the  working 
class,  in  the  opinion  of  many  of  their  ablest  and  most 
influential  representatives,  were  not  merely  left  out,  but 
shouldered  out.  This  was  all  the  more  exasperating,  because 
the  excitement  and  agitation  by  the  strength  of  which  the 
Eeform  Bill  was  carried  in  the  teeth  of  so  much  resistance 
were  kept  up  by  the  working  men.  Eightly  or  wrongly 
they  believed  that  their  strength  had  been  kept  in  reserve 
to  secure  the  carrying  of  the  Eeform  Bill,  and  that  when  it 
was  carried  they  were  immediately  thrown  over  by  those 
whom  they  had  thus  helped  to  pass  it.  Therefore  at  the  time 
when  the  young  Sovereign  ascended  the  throne,  the  working 
classes  in  all  the  large  towns  were  in  a  state  of  profound  dis- 
,  appointment  and  discontent,  almost  indeed  of  disaffection. 
Chartism  was  beginning  to  succeed  to  the  Eeform  agitation. 

Chartism  may  be  said  to  have  sprung  definitively  mto  ex- 
istence in  consequence  of  the  formal  declarations  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Liberal  party  in  Parliament  that  they  did  not  intend  to 
push  Eeform  any  farther.  At  the  openmg  of  the  first  Parlia- 
ment of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  the  question  was  brought  to 
a  test.  A  Eadical  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  moved  a^' 
an  amendment  to  the  address  a  resolution  declaring  in  favour  of 
the  ballot  and  of  shorter  duration  of  Parliaments.  Only  twenty 
members  voted  for  it ;  and  Lord  John  Eussell  declared  that  to 
push  Eeform  any  farther  then  would  be  a  breach  of  faith  towards 
those  who  helped  him  to  carry  it.     A  great  many  outside  Parlia- 


l8  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  n. 

ment  not  unnaturally  regarded  the  refusal  to  go  any  farther  as 
a  breach  of  faith  towards  them  on  the  part  of  the  Liberal  leaders. 
A  conference  was  held  almost  immediately  between  a  few 
of  the  Liberal  members  of  Parliament  who  professed  P^adical 
opinions  and  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  working  men.  At 
this  conference  the  programme,  or  what  w^as  afterw^ards  known 
as  '  the  Charter,'  was  agreed  upon  and  drawn  up.  The  name 
of  Charter  was  given  by  Mr.  O'Connell. 

Quietly  studied  nov/,  the  People's  Charter  does  not  seem  a 
very  formidable  document.  Its  *  points,'  as  they  were  called, 
were  six.  Manhood  Suffrage  came  first.  The  second  was 
Annual  Parliaments.  Vote  by  Ballot  was  the  third.  Abolition 
of  the  Property  Qualification  (then  and  for  many  years  after 
required  for  the  election  of  a  member  to  Parliament)  was  the 
fourth.  The  Payment  of  Members  was  the  fifth  ;  and  the 
Division  of  the  Country  into  Equal  Electoral  Districts,  the 
sixth  of  the  famous  points.  Three  of  the  points — half,  that 
is  to  say,  of  the  whole  number — have  already  been  made  part 
of  our  constitutional  system.  The  existing  franchise  may  be 
virtually  regarded  as  manhood  suffrage.  We  have  for  years 
been  voting  by  means  of  a  written  paper  dropped  in  a  ballot- 
box.  The  property  qualification  for  members  of  Parliament 
could  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  abolished.  Such  a  word 
seems  far  too  grand  and  dignified  to  describe  the  fate  that 
befell  it.  We  should  rather  say  that  it  was  extinguished  by 
its  own  absurdity  and  viciousness.  The  proposal  to  divide 
the  country  into  equal  electoral  districts  is  one  which  can 
hardly  yet  be  regarded  as  having  come  to  any  test.  But  it  is 
almost  certain  that  sooner  or  later  some  alteration  of  our  pre- 
sent system  in  that  direction  wull  be  adopted.  Of  the  two 
other  points  of  the  Charter,  the  payment  of  members  may  be 
regarded  as  decidedly  objectionable  ;  and  that  for  yearly  Par- 
liaments as  embodying  a  proposition  which  would  make  public 
life  an  almost  insufferable  nuisance  to  those  actively  concerned 
in  it. 

The  Chartists  might  be  roughly  divided  into  three  classes 
■ — the  political  Chartists,  the  social  Chartists,  and  the  Chartists 
of  vague  discontent  who  joined  the  movement  because  they 
were  wretched  and  felt  angry.  The  first  were  the  regular 
political  agitators  who  wanted  a  wider  popular  representation ; 
the  second  were  chiefiy  led  to  the  movement  by  their  hatred 
of  the  *  bread-tax.'  These  two  classes  were  perfectly  clear  as 
to  what  they  wanted :  some  of  their  demands   were  just  and 


CH.  II.       SOME    TROUBLES   TO    THE  NEW  REIGN',  I9 

reasonable  ;  none  of  them  were  without  the  sphere  of  rational 
and  peaceful  controversy.  The  disciples  ol  mere  discontent 
naturally  swerved  alternately  to  the  side  of  those  leaders  or 
sections  who  talked  loudest  and  fiercest  against  the  lawmakers 
and  the  constituted  authorities.  Chartism  soon  split  itself 
into  two  general  divisions — the  moral  force  and  the  physical 
force  Chartism.  A  whole  literature  of  Chartist  newspapers 
sprang  up  to  advocate  the  cause.  The  Northern  Star  was  the 
most  popular  and  influential  of  them ;  hut  every  great  town 
had  its  Chartist  press.  Meetings  were  held  at  which  sometimes 
the  most  violent  language  was  employed.  It  began  to  be  the 
practice  to  hold  torchlight  meetings  at  night,  and  many  men 
went  armed  to  these,  and  open  clamour  was  made  by  the  wilder 
of  the  Chartists  for  an  appeal  to  arms.  A  formidable  riot  took 
place  in  Birmingham,  where  the  authorities  endeavoured  to  put 
down  a  Chartist  meeting.  The  Government  began  to  prosecute 
some  oi  the  orators  and  leaders  ol  the  Charter  movement ; 
and  some  oi  these  were  convicted,  imprisoned,  and  treated 
with  great  severity. 

Wide  and  almost  universal  discontent  among  the  working 
classes  in  town  and  country  still  helped  to  swell  the  Chartist 
ranks.  The  weavers  and  stockingers  in  some  of  the  manufac- 
turing towns  were  miserably  poor.  Wages  were  low  every- 
where. In  the  agricultural  districts  the  complaints  against  | 
the  operation  of  the  new  Poor  Law  were  vehement  and  pas- 
sionate ;  and  although  they  were  unjust  in  principle  and  sus- 
tained by  monstrous  exaggerations  of  statement,  they  were 
not  the  less  potent  as  recruiting  agents  for  Chartism.  There 
was  a  profound  distrust  of  the  middle  class  and  their  leaders. 
It  is  clear  that  at  that  time  the  Chartists,  who  represented 
the  bulk  of  the  artisan  class  m  most  of  the  large  towns,  did 
in  their  very  hearts  believe  that  England  was  ruled  for  the 
benefit  of  aristocrats  and  millionaires  who  were  absolutely 
indiff'erent  to  the  sufferings  of  the  poor.  It  is  equally  clear 
that  most  of  what  are  called  the  ruling  class  did  really  believe 
the  English  working  men  who  joined  the  Chartist  movement 
to  be  a  race  of  fierce,  unmanageable  and  selfish  communists 
who,  if  they  were  allowed  their  own  way  for  a  moment,  would 
prove  themselves  determined  to  overthrow  throne,  altar,  and 
all  established  securities  of  society.  An  ignorant  p:inic  pre- 
Vtiiled  on  both  sides. 

The  first  foreign  disturbance  to  the  quiet  and  good  pro- 
mise 01  the  new  reign  came  from  Canada.     The  condition  of 


M 


20  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      CH.  II, 

Canada  was  very  peculiar.  By  an  Act  called  the  Constitution 
of  1701,  Canada  was  divided  into  two  provinces,  the  Upper 
and  the  Lower.  Each  province  had  a  separate  system  of 
government,  consisting  of  a  governor,  an  executive  council 
appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  supposed  in  some  way  to  re- 
semble the  Privy  Council  of  this  country ;  a  legislative 
council,  the  members  of  wdiicli  were  appointed  by  the  Crown 
for  life  ;  and  a  Kepresentative  Assembly,  the  members  of 
which  were  elected  for  four  years.  At  the  same  time  the 
clergy  reserves  were  established  by  Parliament.  One-seventh 
of  the  waste  lands  of  the  colony  was  set  aside  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  Protestant  clergy,  a  fruitful  source  of  disturbance 
and  ill-feeling.  Lower  or  Eastern  Canada  was  inhabited  for 
the  most  part  by  men  of  French  descent,  who  still  kept  up 
in  the  midst  of  an  active  and  moving  civilisation  most  of 
the  principles  and  usages  which  belonged  to  mediaeval  France. 
Lower  Canada  would  have  dozed  away  in  its  sleepy  pictu- 
resqueness,  held  fast  to  its  ancient  ways,  and  allowed  a 
bustling  giddy  world,  all  alive  with  commerce  and  ambition, 
and  desire  for  novelty  and  the  terribly  disturbing  thing  which 
unresting  people  called  progress,  to  rush  on  its  wild  path  un- 
heeded. But  in  the  large  towns  there  were  active  traders 
from  England  and  other  countries,  who  were  by  no  means 
content  to  put  up  with  old-world  ways,  and  to  let  the  magnifi- 
cent resources  of  the  place  run  to  waste.  Upper  Canada,  on 
the  other  hand,  w^as  all  new  as  to  its  population,  and  was  full 
of  the  modern  desire  for  commercial  activity.  Upper  Canada 
was  peopled  almost  exclusively  by  inhabitants  from  great 
Britain. 

It  is  easy  to  sec  on  the  very  face  of  things  some  of  tlio 
difficulties  which  must  arise  in  the  development  of  such  a 
system.  The  French  of  Lower  Canada  would  regard  with 
almost  morbid  jealousy  any  legislation  which  appeared  likely 
to  interfere  with  their  ancient  ways  and  to  give  any  advantage 
or  livour  to  the  populations  of  British  descent.  The  latter 
would  see  injustice  or  feebleness  in  every  measure  which  did 
not  assist  them  in  developing  their  more  energetic  ideas. 

It  was  in  Lower  Canada  that  the  greatest  difficulties  arose. 
A  constant  antagonism  grew  up  between  the  majority  of  the 
Bepresentative  Assembly,  who  were  elected  by  the  population 
of  the  province.  At  last  the  Bepresentative  Assembly  refused 
to  vote  any  fartlffei'  supplies  or  to  carry  on  any  further  busi- 
ness.    They  formulated  their  grievances  against  the  Home 


cii.  11.       SOME   TROUBLES   TO   THE  NEW  REIGN,  21 

Government.  Their  complaints  were  of  arbitrary  conduct  on 
the  part  of  tlie  governors ;  intolerable  composition  oi  the 
legislative  comicil,  which  they  insisted  ought  to  be  elective  ; 
illegal  appropriation  of  the  public  money ;  and  violent  pro- 
rogation ot  the  provincial  Parliament. 

One  of  the  leading  men  in  the  movement  was  Mr.  Louis 
Joseph  Papineau.  This  man  had  risen  to  high  position  by 
his  talents,  his  energy,  and  his  undoubtedly  honourable  cha- 
racter. He  had  represented  Montreal  m  the  Eepresentative 
Assembly  of  Lower  Canada,  and  he  afterwards  became  Speaker 
of  the  House.  He  made  himself  leader  of  the  movement  to 
protest  against  the  policy  of  the  governors,  and  that  of  the 
Government  at  home  by  whom  they  were  sustained.  He 
held  a  series  of  meetings,  at  some  of  which  undoubtedly 
rather  strong  language  was  used,  and  too  frequent  and  signi- 
ficant appeals  v\'ere  made  to  the  .example  held  out  to  the 
population  of  Lower  Canada  by  the  successful  revolt  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Papineau  also  planned  the  calling  together 
of  a  great  convention  to  discuss  and  proclaim  the  grievances 
of  the  colonies.  Lord  Gosford,  the  governor,  began  by  dis- 
missing several  militia  officers  w^lio  had  taken  part  in  some  of 
these  demonstrations  ;  Mr.  Papineau  himself  was  an  officer  of 
this  force.  Then  the  governor  issued  warrants  for  the  appre- 
hension of  many  members  of  the  popular  Assembly  on  the 
charge  of  high  treason.  Some  of  these  at  once  left  the 
country ;  others  agamst  whom  warrants  were  issued  were 
arrested,  and  a  sudden  resistance  was  made  by  their  friends 
and  supporters.  Then,  in  the  manner  familiar  to  all  who 
have  read  anything  of  the  history  of  revolutionary  move- 
m.ents,  the  resistance  to  a  capture  of  prisoners  suddenly 
transformed  itself  into  open  rebellion. 

The  rebellion  w^as  not  in  a  military  sense  a  very  great 
thing.  At  its  first  outbreak  the  military  authorities  were  for 
a  moment  surprised,  and  the  rebels  obtained  one  or  two 
trifling  advantages.  But  the  commander-in-chief  at  once 
showed  energy  adequate  to  the  occasion,  and  used,  as  it  was 
his  duty  to  do,  a  strong  hand  in  putting  the  movement  down. 
The  rebels  fought  with  somethmg  like  desperation  in  one  or 
two  instances,  and  there  was,  it  must  be  said,  a  good  deal  oi 
blood  shed.  The  disturbance,  however,  after  a  while  extended 
to  the  upper  pro\dnce.  Upper  Canada  too  had  its  complaints 
against  its  governors  and  the  Home  Government. 

The  news  of  the  outbreaks  iu  Canada  created  a  natural 


22  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  IL 

excitement  in  this  country.  There  was  a  very  strong  feeling 
of  sympathy  among  many  classes  here— not,  indeed,  with  the 
rebellion,  but  with  the  colony  which  complained  of  what 
seemed  to  be  genuine  and  serious  grievances.  Public  meet- 
ings were  held  at  which  resolutions  were  passed  ascribing  the 
disturbances  in  the  first  place  to  the  refusal  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  any  redress  sought  for  by  the  colonists.  Lord  John 
Russell  on  the  part  of  the  Government  introduced  a  bill  to 
deal  v\dtli  the  rebellious  province.  The  bill  proposed  in  brief 
to  suspend  for  a  time  the  constitution  of  Lower  Canada,  and 
to  send  out  from  this  country  a  governor-general  and  high 
commissioner,  with  full  powers  to  deal  with  the  rebellion,  and 
to  remodel  the  constitution  of  both  provinces.  There  was  an 
almost  universal  admission  that  the  Government  had  found 
the  right  man  when  Lord  John  Kussell  mentioned  the  name 
of  Lord  Durham. 

Lord  Durham  was  a  man  of  remarkable  character.  He 
belonged  to  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  England.  The 
Lambtons  had  lived  on  their  estate  in  the  north,  in  uninter- 
rupted succession,  since  the  Conquest.  The  male  succession, 
it  is  stated,  never  was  interrupted  since  the  twelfth  century. 
They  were  not,  however,  a  family  of  aristocrats.  Their  wealth 
was  derived  chiefly  from  coal-mines,  and  grew  up  in  later 
days  ;  the  property  at  first,  and  for  a  long  time,  was  of  incon- 
siderable value.  Lord  Durham  w^as  born  at  Lambton  Castle 
in  April  1792.  Before  he  was  quite  twenty  years  of  age,  he 
made  a  romantic  marriage  at  Gretna  Green  with  a  lady  who 
died  three  years  after.  About  a  year  after  the  death  of  his 
first  wife,  he  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  Lord  Grey.  He 
was  then  only  twenty-four  years  of  age.  He  had  before  tlijs 
been  returned  to  Parliament  for  the  county  of  Durham,  and 
he  soon  distinguished  himself  as  a  very  advanced  and  energetio 
reformer.  While  in  the  Commons  he  seldom  addressed  the 
Plouse,  but  when  he  did  speak,  it  was  in  support  of  some 
measure  of  reform,  or  against  what  he  conceived  to  be  anti- 
quated and  illiberal  legislation.  He  brought  out  a  plan  of 
his  own  for  Parliamentary  reform  in  1821.  In  1828  he  was 
raised  to  the  peerage  with  the  title  of  Baron  Durham.  When 
the  ]\Iinistry  of  Lord  Grey  was  formed,  in  November  18o0, 
Lord  Durham  became  Lord  Privy  Seal.  He  is  said  to  have 
had  an  almost  complete  control  over  Lord  Grey.  He  had  an 
impassioned  and  energetic  nature,  which  sometimes  drove 
him  into  outbreaks  of  feeling  which  most  of  his  colleagues 


CH.  II.       SOME    TROUBLES   TO    THE  NEW  REIGN,  23 

dreaded.  He  was  thorough  in  his  reformmg  purposes,  and 
would  have  rushed  at  radical  changes  with  scanty  considera- 
tion for  the  time  or  for  the  temper  of  his  opponents.  He  had 
very  little  reverence  indeed  for  the  majesty  of  custom.  What- 
ever he  wished  he  strongly  wished.  He  had  no  idea  of  reti- 
cence, and  cared  not  much  for  the  decorum  of  office.  He 
was  one  of  the  men  who,  even  when  they  are  thoroughly  in  the 
right,  have  often  the  unhappy  art  of  seeming  to  put  themselves 
completely  m  the  wrong.  None  of  his  opponents,  however, 
denied  his  great  ability.  He  was  never  deterred  by  conven- 
tional beliefs  and  habits  from  looking  boldly  into  the  very 
heart  of  a  great  political  difficulty.  He  was  never  afraid  to 
propose  what  in  times  later  than  his  have  been  called  heroic 
remedies.  There  was  a  general  impression,  perhaps  even 
among  those  who  liked  him  least,  that  he  was  a  sort  of 
*  unemployed  Caesar,'  a  man  who  only  required  a  field  large 
enough  to  develop  great  qualities  in  the  ruling  of  men.  The 
difficulties  in  Canada  seemed  to  have  come  as  if  expressly  to 
give  him  an  opportunity  of  proving  himself  all  that  his  friends 
declared  him  to  be,  or  of  justifying  for  ever  the  distrust  of  his 
enemies.  He  went  out  to  Canada  with  the  assurance  of 
ev^'yone  that  his  expedition  would  either  make  or  mar  a 
career,  if  not  a  country.  Lord  Durham  found  out  a  new 
alternative.  He  made  a  country  and  he  marred  a  career- 
The  mission  of  Lord  Durham  saved  Canada.  It  ruined  Lord 
Durham. 

Lord  Durham  arrived  in  Quebec  at  the  end  of  May,  1838. 
He  at  once  issued  a  proclamation,  in  style  like  that  of  a 
dictator.  It  was  not  in  any  way  unAvorthy  of  the  occasion, 
which  especially  called  for  the  intervention  of  a  brave  and 
enlightened  dictatorship.  He  declared  that  he  would  un- 
sparingly punish  any  who  violated  the  laws,  but  he  frankly 
invited  the  co-operation  of  the  colonies  to  form  a  new  system 
ot  government  really  suited  to  their  wants  and  to  the  altering 
conditions  of  civilisation.  Unfortunately  he  had  hardly  entered 
on  his  work  of  dictatorship  when  he  found  that  he  was  no  longer 
a  dictator.  In  the  passing  of  the  Canada  Bill  through  Parlia- 
ment the  powers  which  he  understood  were  to  be  conferred 
upon  him  had  been  considerably  reduced.  Lord  Durham 
went  to  work,  however,  as  if  he  were  still  invested  with 
absolute  authority  over  all  the  laws  and  conditions  of  the 
colony.  A  very  Caesar  laying  down  the  lines  for  the  future 
government  of  a  province  could  hardly  have  been  more  boldly 


24  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,      cii.  II, 

arbitrary.  Let  it  be  said  also  that  Lord  Durham's  arbitrariness 
was  for  the  most  part  healthy  in  effect  and  just  in  spirit.  But 
it  gave  an  immense  opportunity  of  attack  on  himself  and 
on  the  Government  to  the  enemies  of  both  at  home.  Lord 
Durham  had  hardly  begun  his  work  of  reconstruction  when  his 
recall  was  clamoured  for  by  vehement  voices  in  Parliament. 

Lord  Durham  did  not  wait  for  the  formal  recall.  He 
returned  to  England  a  disgraced  man.  Yet  even  then  there 
was  public  spirit  enough  among  the  English  people  to  refuse 
to  ratify  any  sentence  of  disgrace  upon  him.  When  he  landed 
at  Plymouth,  he  was  received  with  acclamations  by  the  popu- 
lation, although  the  Government  had  prevented  any  of  the 
official  honour  usually  shown  to  returning  governors  from 
being  offered  to  him. 

Lord  Durham's  report  was  acknowledged  by  enemies  as 
well  as  by  the  most  impartial  critics  to  be  a  masterly  document. 
It  laid  the  foundation  of  the  political  success  and  social  pro- 
sperity not  only  of  Canada  but  of  all  the  other  important  colonies. 
After  having  explained  in  the  most  exhaustive  manner  the 
causes  of  discontent  and  backwardness  in  Canada,  it  went  on 
to  recommend  that  the  government  of  the  colony  should  be 
put  as  much  as  possible  into  the  hands  of  the  colonists  th&i- 
selves,  that  they  themselves  should  execute  as  well  as  make 
the  laws,  the  limit  of  the  Imperial  Government's  interference 
being  in  such  matters  as  affect  the  relations  of  the  colony  with 
the  mother  country,  such  as  the  constitution  and  form  of 
government,  the  regulation  of  foreign  relations  and  trade,  and 
the  disposal  of  the  public  lands.  Lord  Durham  proposed  to 
establish  a  thoroughly  good  system  of  municipal  institutions ; 
to  secure  the  independence  of  the  judges  ;  to  make  all  provin- 
cial officers,  except  the  governor  and  his  secretary,  responsible 
to  the  Colonial  Legislature  ;  and  to  repeal  all  former  legislation 
with  respect  to  the  reserves  of  land  for  the  clergy.  Finally, 
he  proposed  that  the  provinces  of  Canada  should  be  reunited 
politically  and  should  become  one  legislature,  containing  the 
representatives  of  both  races  and  of  all  districts.  It  is  signifi- 
cant that  the  report  also  recommended  that  in  any  Act  to  be 
introduced  for  this  purpose,  a  i)rovision  should  be  made  by 
which  all  or  any  of  the  other  North  American  colonies 
should  on  the  application  of  their  legislatures  and  with  tlie 
consent  of  Canada  be  admitted  into  the  Canadian  Union.  In 
brief,  Lord  Durham  proposed  to  malvc  the  Canadas  self-govern- 
ing as  regards  their  internal  affairs,  and  the  germ  of  a  federal 
union. 


CH.  II.       SOME   TROUBLES  TO   THE  NEW  REIGN.  2$ 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  in  detail  the  steps  by  which 
the  Government  gradually  introduced  the  recommendations  of 
Lord  Durham  to  Parliament  and  carried  them  to  success.  In 
1840,  however,  the  Act  was  passed  which  reunited  Upper 
and  Lower  Canada  on  the  basis  proposed  by  Lord  Durham. 
Lord  Durham  did  not  live  to  see  the  success  of  the  policy 
he  had  recommended.  Within  a  few  days  after  the  passing  oi 
the  Canada  Government  Bill  he  died  at  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  on  July  28,  1840.  He  w^as  then  little  more  than  forty- 
eight  years  of  age.  He  had  for  some  time  been  in  failing 
health,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  mortification  attend- 
ing his  Canadian  mission  had  worn  away  his  strength.  His 
proud  and  sensitive  spirit  could  ill  bear  the  contradictions  and 
humiliations  that  had  been  forced  upon  him.  He  w^anted  to 
the  success  of  his  political  career  that  proud  patience  which 
the  gods  are  said  to  love,  and  by  virtue  of  which  great  men 
live  down  misappreciation,  and  hold  out  until  they  see  them- 
selves justified  and  hear  the  reproaches  turn  mto  cheers.  But 
if  Lord  Durham's  personal  career  was  in  anyway  a  failure,  his 
policy  for  the  Canadas  was  a  splendid  success.  It  established 
the  principles  of  colonial  government.  There  were  defects  in 
the  construction  of  Lord  Durham's  scheme,  but  the  success  of 
his  policy  lay  in  the  broad  principles  it  laid  down,  and  to  which 
other  colonial  systems  as  well  as  that  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
owe  their  strength  and  security  to-day.  One  may  say,  with 
little  help  from  the  merely  fanciful,  that  the  rejoicings  of 
emancipated  colonies  might  have  been  in  his  dymg  ears  as  he 
sank  into  his  early  grave. 

The  Opium  dispute  with  China  was  going  on  when  the 
Queen  came  to  the  throne.  The  Opium  War  broke  out  soon 
after.  Eeduced  to  plain  words,  the  principle  for  which  we 
fought  in  the  China  War  was  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to  force 
a  peculiar  trade  upon  a  foreign  people  in  spite  of  the  protest- 
ations of  the  Government  and  all  such  public  opinion  as  there 
was  of  the  nation. 

The  whole  principle  of  Chinese  civilisation,  at  the  time 
when  the  Opium  War  broke  out,  was  based  on  conditions  which 
to  any  modern  nation  must  seem  erroneous  and  unreasonable. 
The  Chinese  Governments  and  people  desired  to  have  no  political 
relations  or  dealings  whatever  with  any  other  State.  They  were 
not  so  obstinately  set  against  private  and  commercial  dealings ; 
but  they  would  have  no  political  intercourse  with  foreigners, 
and  they  would  not  even  recognise  the  existence  of  foreign 


26  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  n. 

peoples  as  States.  They  were  perfectly  satisfied  with  themselveg 
and  their  own  systems.  The  one  thing  which  China  asked  of 
European  civilisation  and  the  movement  called  Modern  Progress 
was  to  be  let  alone.  The  Chinese  would  much  rather  have 
lived  without  ever  seeing  the  face  of  a  foreigner.  But  they  had 
put  up  with  the  private  intrusion  of  foreigners  and  trade,  and 
had  had  dealings  with  American  traders  and  with  the  East 
India  Company.  The  charter  and  the  exclusive  rights  of  the 
East  India  Company  expired  in  April  1834 ;  the  charter  was 
renewed  under  different  conditions,  and  the  trade  with  China 
was  thrown  open.  One  of  the  great  branches  of  the  East  India 
Company's  business  with  China  was  the  opium  trade.  When 
the  trading  privileges  ceased  this  traffic  was  taken  up  briskly  by 
private  merchants,  who  bought  of  the  Company  the  opium 
which  they  grew  in  India  and  sold  it  to  the  Chinese.  The 
Chinese  Governments,  and  all  teachers,  moralists,  and  persons 
of  education  in  China,  had  long  desired  to  get  rid  of  or  put  down 
this  trade  in  opium.  They  considered  it  highly  detrimental  to 
the  morals,  the  health,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  people.  All 
traffic  in  opium  was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  Governments  and 
laws  of  China.  Yet  our  English  traders  carried  on  a  brisk  and 
profitable  trade  in  the  forbidden  article.  Nor  was  this  merely  an 
ordinary  smuggling,  or  a  business  akin  to  that  of  the  blockade 
running  during  the  American  civil  war.  The  arrangements 
with  the  Chinese  Government  allowed  the  existence  of  all  esta- 
blishments and  machinery  for  carrying  on  a  general  trade  at 
Canton  and  Macao  ;  and  under  cover  of  these  arrangements  the 
opium  traders  set  up  their  regular  head- quarters  in  these  towns. 

The  English  Government  appointed  superintendents  to 
manage  our  commercial  dealings  with  China.  Misunderstand- 
ings occurred  at  every  new  step  of  negotiation.  These  mis- 
understandings were  natural.  Our  people  Imew  hardly  any- 
thin  g:  about  the  Chinese.  The  limitation  of  our  means  of 
communication  with  them  made  this  ignorance  inevitable,  but 
certainly  did  not  excuse  our  acting  as  if  we  were  in  possession 
of  the  fullest  and  most  accurate  information. 

The  Chinese  believed  from  the  first  that  the  superintendents 
were  there  merely  to  protect  the  opium  trade,  and  to  force  on 
China  jDolitical  relations  with  the  West.  Practically  this  wag 
the  effect  of  their  presence.  The  superintendents  took  no  steps 
to  aid  the  Chinese  authorities  in  stopping  the  hated  trade. 
The  British  traders  naturally  enougli  thought  that  the  British 
Government  were  determined  to  protect  them  in  carrying  it  on. 


cii.  II.       SOME   TROUBLES  TO    THE  NEW  REIGN.  27 

At  length  the  English  Government  announced  tliat  *  her 
Majesty's  Government  could  not  interfere  for  the  purpose  of 
enabling  British  subjects  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  country  with 
which  they  trade ; '  and  that  '  any  loss  therefore  which  such 
persons  may  suffer  in  consequence  of  the  more  effectual  exe- 
cution of  the  Chinese  laws  on  this  subject  must  be  borne  by  the 
parties  who  have  brought  that  loss  on  themselves  by  their  own 
acts.'  This  very  wuse  and  proper  resolve  came,  however,  too 
late.  The  British  traders  had  been  allowed  to  go  on  for  a  long 
time  under  the  full  conviction  that  the  protection  of  the  English 
Government  was  behind  them  and  wholly  at  their  service. 

When  the  Chinese  authorities  actually  proceeded  to  insist 
on  the  forfeiture  of  an  immense  quantity  of  opium  in  the  hand 
of  British  traders,  and  took  other  harsh,  but  certainly  not  un- 
natural measures  to  extinguish  the  traffic,  Captain  Elliott,  the 
chief  superintendent,  sent  to  the  Governor  of  India  a  request 
for  as  many  ships  of  war  as  could  be  spared  for  the  protection 
of  the  life  and  property  of  Englishmen  in  China.  Before  long 
British  ships  arrived  ;  and  the  two  countries  were  at  war. 

It  was  easy  work  enough  so  far  as  England  was  concerned. 
It  was  on  our  side  nothing  but  a  succession  of  cheap  victories. 
The  Chinese  fought  very  bravely  in  a  great  many  instances ; 
and  they  showed  still  more  often  a  Spartan-like  resolve  not  to 
survive  defeat.  When  one  of  the  Chinese  cities  was  taken  by 
Sir  Hugh  Gough,  the  Tartar  general  went  into  his  house  as 
soon  as  he  saw  that  all  was  lost,  made  his  servants  set  fire  to 
the  building,  and  calmly  sat  in  his  chair  until  he  was  burned 
to  death.  We  quickly  captured  the  island  of  Chusan,  on  the 
east  coast  of  China  ;  a  part  of  our  squadron  went  up  the  Peiho 
river  to  threaten  the  capital ;  negotiations  were  opened,  and 
the  preliminaries  of  a  treaty  were  made  out,  to  v/hich,  however, 
neither  the  English  Government  nor  the  Chinese  would  agree, 
and  the  war  was  reopened.  Chusan  was  again  taken  by  us ; 
Nmgpo,  a  large  city  a  few  miles  in  on  the  mainland,  fell  into 
our  hands ;  Amoy,  farther  south,  was  captured ;  our  troops 
were  before  Nankin,  when  the  Chinese  Government  at  last  saw 
how  futile  was  the  idea  of  resisting  our  arms.  They  made 
peace  at  last  on  any  terms  w^e  chose  to  ask.  We  asked  in  the  \ 
first  instance  the  cession  in  perpetuity  to  us  of  the  island  of  \ 
Hong-Kong.  Of  course  we  got  it.  Then  we  asked  that  five 
ports.  Canton,  Amoy,  Foo-Chow-Foo,  Ningpo,  and  Shanghai 
should  be  thrown  open  to  British  traders,  and  that  consuls 
should  be  established  there.     Needless  to  say  that  this  too  waa 


28  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  ii. 

conceded.  Then  it  was  agreed  that  the  mdemnity  ah'cady  men- 
tioned should  be  paid  by  the  Chinese  Government — some  four 
milhons  and  a  half  sterHng,  in  addition  to  one  million  and  a 
quarter  as  compensation  for  the  destroyed  opium.  The  Chinese 
war  then  was  over  for  the  time.  But  as  the  children  say  tliat 
snow  brings  more  snow,  so  did  that  war  with  China  bring  other 
wars  to  follow  it. 

The  Melbourne  Ministry  kept  going  from  bad  to  worse. 
There  was  a  great  stirring  in  the  country  all  around  them, 
which  made  their  feebleness  the  more  conspicuous.  Indeed 
the  history  of  that  time  seems  full  of  Reform  projects.  The 
Parliamentary  annals  contain  the  names  of  various  measures 
of  social  and  political  improvement  which  might  in  them- 
selves, it  would  seem,  bear  witness  to  the  most  unsleeping 
activity  on  the  part  of  any  Ministry.  The  appointment  of  the 
Committee  of  Council  to  deal  with  the  elementary  education 
of  the  poor ;  measures  for  general  registration ;  for  the  re- 
duction of  the  stamp  duty  on  newspapers,  and  of  the  duty 
on  paper ;  for  the  improvement  of  the  gaol  system ;  for  the 
spread  of  vaccination  ;  for  the  regulation  of  the  labour  of  chil- 
dren ;  for  the  prohibition  of  the  employment  of  any  child  or 
young  person  under  twenty-one  in  the  cleaning  of  chimneys 
by  climbmg ;  for  the  suppression  of  the  punishment  of  the 
pillory  ;  efforts  to  relieve  the  Jews  from  civil  disabilities — these 
are  but  a  few  of  the  many  projects  of  social  and  political 
reform  that  occupied  the  attention  of  that  busy  period  w^hich 
somehow  appears  nevertheless  to  have  been  so  sleepy  and  do- 
nothing.  How  does  it  come  about  that  we  can  regard  the  Min- 
istry in  whose  time  all  these  things  were  done  or  attempted  as 
exliausted  and  worthless  ? 

One  answer  is  plain.  The  reforming  energy  was  in  the 
time,  and  not  in  the  Ministry.  There  was  a  just  and  general 
conviction  that  if  the  Government  were  left  to  themselves  they 
would  do  nothing.  Whatever  they  undertook  they  seemed  to 
undertake  reluctantly,  and  as  if  only  with  the  object  of  pre- 
venting other  people  from  having  anything  to  do  with  it. 
Naturally,  therefore,  they  got  little  or  no  thanks  for  any  good 
they  might  have  done.  When  they  brought  in  a  measure  to 
abolish  in  various  cases  the  punishment  of  death,  they  fell  so 
far  behind  public  opinion  and  the  inclinations  of  the  Com- 
mission that  had  for  eight  years  been  inquiring  into  the  state 
of  our  criminal  law,  that  their  bill  only  passed  by  very  narrow 
majorities,  and  impressed  many  ardent  reformers  as  if  it  were 


CH.  II.       SOME    TROUBLES  TO   THE  NEW  REIGN.  29 

/neanfc  rather  to  witliliold  than  to  advance  a  genuine  reform. 
In  truth  it  was  a  period  of  enthusiasm  and  of  gro^vth,  and  the 
Ministry  did  not  understand  this.  Lord  Melbourne  had  appa- 
rently got  into  his  mind  the  conviction  that  the  only  sensible 
thing  the  people  of  England  could  do  was  to  keep  up  the  Mel- 
bourne Ministry,  and  that  being  a  sensible  people  they  would 
naturally  do  this.  He  had  grown  into  something  like  the  con- 
dition of  a  pampered  old  hall  porter,  who,  dozing  in  his  chair, 
begins  to  look  on  it  as  an  act  of  rudeness  if  any  visitor  to  his 
master  presumes  to  knock  at  the  door  and  so  disturb  him  from 
his  comfortable  rest. 

The  operations  which  took  place  about  this  time  in  Syria 
had  an  important  bearing  on  the  relations  between  this  country 
and  France.  Mohammed  Ali,  Pasha  of  Egypt,  the  most 
powerful  of  all  the  Sultan's  feudatories,  had  made  himself  for 
a  time  master  of  Syria.  By  the  aid  of  his  adopted  son,  Ibra- 
him Pasha,  he  had  defeated  the  armies  of  the  Porte  wherever 
he  had  encountered  them.  Mohammed's  victories  had  for  the 
time  compelled  the  Porte  to  allow  him  to  remain  in  power  in 
Syria ;  but  in  1839  the  Sultan  again  declared  war  against 
Mohammed  Ali.  Ibrahim  Pasha  again  obtained  an  over- 
whelming victory  over  the  Turkish  army.  The  energetic 
Sultan  Mahmoud  died  suddenly ;  and  immediately  after  his 
death  the  Capitan  Pasha,  or  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  Otto- 
man fleet,  went  over  to  the  Egyptians  with  all  his  vessels  ;  an 
act  of  almost  unexampled  treachery  even  in  the  history  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  It  was  evident  that  Turkey  was  not  able 
to  hold  her  own  against  the  formidable  Mohammed  and  his 
successful  son ;  and  the  policy  of  the  Western  Powers  of 
Europe,  and  of  England  especially,  had  long  been  to  maintain 
the  Ottoman  Empire  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  common  State 
system.  The  policy  of  Eussia  was  to  keep  up  that  empire 
as  long  as  it  suited  her  own  purposes ;  to  take  care  that  no 
other  Power  got  anything  out  of  Turkey  ;  and  to  prepare  the 
way  for  such  a  partition  of  the  spoils  of  Turkey  as  would 
satisfy  Eussian  interests.  Eussia  therefore  was  to  be  found 
now  defending  Turkey,  and  now  assailing  her.  The  course 
taken  by  Eussia  was  seemingly  inconsistent ;  but  it  was  only 
inconsistent  as  the  course  of  a  sailing  ship  may  be  which  now 
tacks  to  this  side  and  now  to  that,  but  has  a  clear  object  in 
view  and  a  port  to  reach  all  the  while.  England  was  then  and 
for  a  long  time  after  steadily  bent  on  preserving  the  Turkish 
Empire,  and  in  a  great  measure  as  a  rampart   against  the 


30  A  SnORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      en.  ii. 

schemes  and  ambitions  imputed  to  Eussia  herself.  France 
was  less  firmly  set  on  the  maintenance  of  Turkey  ;  and  France, 
moreover,  had  got  into  her  mind  that  England  had  designs  of 
her  own  on  Egypt.  Austria  was  disposed  to  go  generally  with 
England ;  Prussia  was  little  more  than  a  nominal  sharer  in  the 
alliance  that  was  now  patched  up.  It  is  evident  that  such  an 
alliance  could  not  be  very  harmonious  or  direct  in  its  action. 
It  was,  however,  effective  enough  to  prove  too  strong  for  the 
Pasha  of  Egypt.  A  fleet  made  up  of  English,  Austrian  and 
Turkish  vessels  bombarded  Acre  ;  an  allied  army  xlrove  the 
Egyptians  from  several  of  their  strongholds.  Ibrahim  Pasha, 
with  all  his  courage  and  genius,  was  not  equal  to  the  odds 
against  which  he  now  saw  himself  forced  to  contend.  He  had 
to  succumb".  Mohammed  Ali  was  deprived  of  all  his  Asiatic 
possessions ;  but  was  secured  in  his  government  of  Egypt  by  a 
convention  signed  at  London  on  July  15,  1840,  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Great  Britain,  Austria,  Prussia  and  Eussia,  on  the 
one  part,  and  of  the  Ottoman  Porte  on  the  other.  The  name  of 
France  was  not  found  there.  France  had  drawn  back  from  the 
alliance,  and  for  some  time  seemed  as  if  she  were  likely  to  take 
arms  against  it.  M.  Thiers  was  then  her  Prime  Minister  :  he 
was  a  man  of  quick  fancy,  restless  and  ambitious  temperament. 
Thiers  persuaded  himself  and  the  great  majority  of  his  country- 
men that  England  was  bent  upon  driving  Mohammed  Ali  out 
of  Egypt  as  well  as  out  of  Syria,  and  that  her  object  was  to 
obtain  possession  of  Egypt  for  herself.  For  some  months  it 
seemed  as  if  war  were  inevitable  between  England  and  France. 
Fortunately,  the  French  King,  Louis  Philippe  and  the  eminent 
statesman,  M.  Guizot,  were  both  strongly  in  favour  of  peace ; 
M.  Thiers  resigned ;  M.  Guizot  became  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  virtually  head  of  the  Government,  and  on  July  13, 
1841,  the  Treaty  of  London  was  signed,  which  provided  for  the 
settlement  of  the  affairs  of  Egypt  on  the  basis  of  the  arrange- 
ment already  made,  and  which  contained  moreover  a  stipula- 
tion, by  which  the  Sultan  declared  himself  firmly  resolved  to 
maintain  the  ancient  principle  of  his  empire — that  no  foreign 
ship  of  war  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  Dardanelles  and  the 
Bosphorus,  with  the  exception  of  light  vessels  for  which  a 
firman  was  granted. 

Steadily  meanwhile  did  the  Ministry  go  from  bad  to  worse. 
They  were  remarkably  bad  administrators  ;  their  finances  v/ere 
wretchedly  managed.  The  budget  of  the  Chancellor  ot  tlie 
Exchequer,  Mr.  Baring,  showed  a  deficiency  of  nearly  two 


CH.  II.       SOME    TROUBLES  TO   THE  NEW  REIGJSF,  31 

millions.  This  deficiency  he  proposed  to  meet  in  part  by 
alteration  in  the  sugar  duties  ;  but  the  House  of  Commons, 
after  a  long  debate,  rejected  his  proposals  by  a  majority  of 
thirty-six.  It  was  then  expected,  of  course,  that  ministers 
would  resign  ;  but  they  were  not  yet  willing  to  accept  the 
consequences  of  defeat.  People  began  to  ask,  '  Will  nothing 
then  turn  them  out  of  office  ?  Will  they  never  have  done  with 
trying  new  tricks  to  keep  in  place  ?  ' 

Sir  Eobert  Peel  took,  in  homely  phrase,  the  bull  by  the 
horns.  He  proposed  a  direct  vote  of  v/ant  of  confidence — a 
resolution  declaring  that  ministers  did  not  possess  the  confi- 
dence of  the  House  sufficiently  to  enable  them  to  carry 
through  the  measures  which  they  deemed  of  essential  impor- 
tance to  the  public  welfare,  and  that  their  continuance  in  office 
under  such  circumstances  was  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of 
the  Constitution.  On  Jmie  4,  1841,  the  division  was  taken; 
and  the  vote  of  no-confidence  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one. 
Even  the  Whigs  could  not  stand  this.  Parliament  was  dis- 
solved, and  the  result  of  the  general  election  was  that  the 
Tories  were  found  to  have  a  majority  even  greater  than  they 
themselves  had  anticipated.  The  moment  the  new  Parhament 
was  assembled  amendments  to  the  addi'ess  were  carried  in  both 
Houses  in  a  sense  hostile  to  the  Government.  Lord  Melbourne 
and  his  colleagues  had  to  resign,  and  Sir  Eobert  Peel  was  en- 
trusted with  the  task  of  forming  an  administration. 

We  have  no  more  to  do  with  Lord  Melbourne  in  this  history. 
He  merely  drops  out  of  it.  Between  his  expulsion  from  ofiice 
and  his  death,  which  took  place  in  1848,  he  did  little  or  nothing 
to  call  for  the  notice  of  anyone.  It  was  said  at  one  tune  that 
his  closing  years  were  lonesome  and  melancholy  ;  but  this  has 
lately  been  denied,  and  indeed  it  is  not  likely  that  one  who  had 
such  a  genial  temper  and  so  many  friends  could  have  been  left  to 
the  dreariness  of  a  not  self-sufficing  solitude  and  to  the  bitter- 
ness of  neglect.  He  was  a  generous  and  kindly  man ;  his 
personal  character,  although  often  assailed,  was  free  of  any 
serious  reproach  ;  he  was  a  failure  m  office,  not  so  much  from 
want  of  ability,  as  because  he  was  a  politician  without  convic- 
tions. 

y  The  Peel  Ministry  came  into  power  with  great  hopes.  It 
had  Lord  Lyndhurst  for  Lord  Chancellor  ;  Sir  James  Graham 
for  Home  Secretary  ;  Lord  Aberdeen  at  the  Foreign  Office ; 
Lord  Stanley  was  Colonial  Secretary.  The  most  remarkable 
man  not  in  the  Cabinet,  soon  to  be  one  of  the  foremost  states- 


32  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  il. 

men  in  the  country,  was  Mr.  W.  E.  Gladstone.  It  is  a  fact 
of  some  significance  in  the  history  of  the  Peel  administration, 
that  the  elections  which  brought  the  new  Ministry  into  power 
brought  Mr.  Cobden  for  the  first  time  into  the  House  of 
Commons. 

While  Lord  Melbourne  and  his  Whig  colleagues,  still  in 
office,  were  fribbling  away  their  popularity  on  the  pleasant  as- 
sumption that  ^nobody  was  particularly  in  earnest  about  any- 
thing, the  Vice- Chancellor  and  heads  of  houses  held  a  meeting 
at  Oxford,  and  passed  a  censure  on  the  celebrated  *  No.  90  '  of 
*  Tracts  for  the  Times.*  The  author  of  the  tract  was  Dr.  John 
Henry  Newman,  and  the  principal  ground  for  its  censure  by 
voices  claiming  authority  was  the  principle  it  seemed  to  put 
forward — that  a  man  might  honestly  subscribe  all  the  articles 
and  formularies  of  the  English  Church,  while  yet  holding 
many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Kome,  against  which 
those  articles  were  regarded  as  a  necessary  protest.  The 
great  movement  which  was  thus  brought  into  sudden  question 
and  publicity  sprang  from  the  desire  to  revive  the  authority 
of  the  Church ;  to  quicken  her  with  a  new  vitality  ;  to  give 
her  once  again  that  place  as  guide  and  inspirer  of  the  national 
life  which  her  ardent  votaries  believed  to  be  hers  by  right, 
and  to  have  been  forfeited  only  by  the  carelessness  of  her 
authorities  and  their  failure  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  her  Heaven- 
assigned  mission. 

No  movement  could  have  had  a  purer  source.  None  could 
have  had  more  disinterested  and  high-minded  promoters. 
It  was  borne  in  upon  some  earnest  unresting  souls,  like  that 
of  the  sweet  and  saintly  Keble,  that  the  Church  of  England 
had  higher  duties  and  nobler  claims  than  the  business  of 
preaching  harmless  sermons  and  the  power  of  enriching 
bishops.  Keble  urged  on  some  of  the  more  vigorous  and 
thoughtful  minds  around  him  by  his  influence  and  his  ex- 
ample, that  they  should  reclaim  for  the  Church  the  place 
which  ought  to  be  hers,  as  the  true  successor  of  the  Apostles. 
Among  those  who  shared  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Keble  were 
Eichard  Hurrell  Froude,  the  historian's  elder  brother,  who 
gave  rich  promise  of  a  splendid  career,  but  who  died  while 
still  in  comparative  youth  ;  Dr.  Pusey,  afterwards  leader  of 
the  school  of  ecclesiasticism  which  bears  his  name  ;  and,  most 
eminent  of  all,  Dr.  Newman.  Newman  had  started  the  publi- 
cation of  a  series  of  treatises  called  '  Tracts  for  the  Times,'  to 
vindicate  the  real  mission  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 


CH.  II.       SOME   TROUBLES   TO   THE  NEW  REIGN.  33 

wrote  the  most  remarkable  of  them.  This  was  the  Tractarian 
movement,  which  had  such  various  and  memorable  results. 
Newman  had  up  to  this  time  been  distinguished  as  one  of  the 
most  unsparing  enemies  of  Eome.  He  had  never  had  any 
manner  of  association  with  Eoman  Catholics  ;  had  in  fact 
known  singularly  little  of  them.  At  this  time  the  idea  of 
leaving  the  Church  never,  Dr.  Newman  himself  as:3iires  us, 
had  crossed  his  imaofination. 

The  abilities  of  Dr.  Newman  were  hardly  surpassed  by  any 
contemporary  in  any  department  of  thought.  His  position 
and  influence  in  Oxford  were  almost  unique.  There  was  in 
his  intellectual  temperament  a  curious  combination  of  the 
mystic  and  the  logical.  England  in  our  time  has  hardly  had 
a  greater  master  of  argument  and  of  English  prose  than 
Newman.  He  is  one  of  the  keenest  of  dialecticians.  His 
words  dispel  mists  ;  and  whether  they  who  listen  agree  or  not, 
they  cannot  fail  to  understand.  A  penetrating  poignant  sati- 
rical "humour  is  found  in  most  of  his  writings  ;  an  irony  some- 
times piercing  suddenly  through  it  like  a  darting  pain.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  generous  vein  of  poetry  and  of  pathos  informs 
his  style  ;  and  there  are  many  passages  of  his  works  in  which 
he  rises  to  the  height  of  a  genuine  and  noble  eloquence. 

In  all  the  arts  that  make  a  great  preacher  or  orator, 
Newman  was  strikingly  deficient.  His  manner  was  con- 
strained, ungraceful  and  even  awkward  ;  his  voice  was  thin 
and  weak.  His  bearing  was  not  at  first  impressive  in  any 
way.  A  gaunt,  emaciated  figure,  a  sharp  and  eagle  face,  a 
cold,  meditative  eye  rather  repelled  than  attracted  those  who 
saw  him  for  the  first  time.  Singularly  devoid  of  affectation, 
Newman  did  not  always  conceal  his  intellectual  scorn  of  men 
who  made  loud  pretence  with  inferior  gifts,  and  the  men  must 
have  been  few  indeed  whose  gifts  were  not  inferior  to  ]iis. 
Newman  had  no  scorn  for  intellectual  inferiority  in  itself ;  he 
despised  it  only  when  it  gave  itself  airs.  His  influence  while 
he  was  the  vicar  of  St.  Mary's  at  Oxford  was  profound.  No 
opponent  ever  spoke  of  Newman  but  with  admiration  for  his 
intellect  and  respect  for  his  character.  Dr.  Newman  had  a 
younger  brother,  Francis  W.  Newman,  who  also  possessed, 
remarkable  ability  and  earnestness.  He  too  was  distinguished 
at  Oxford,  and  seemed  to  have  a  great  career  there  before  him. 
But  he  was  drawn  one  way  by  the  wave  of  thought  before  his 
more  famous  brother  had  been  drawn  tlie  other  way.  In 
1830,   the    younger    Newman   found   himself    prevented   by 

2" 


34  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.        ch.  ii. 

religious  scruples  from  subscribing  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
for  his  master's  degree.  He  left  the  university,  and  wandered 
for  years  in  the  East,  endeavouring,  not  very  successfully 
perhaps,  to  teach  Christianity  on  its  broadest  base  to  Maho- 
metans ;  and  then  he  came  back  to  England  to  take  his  plase 
among  the  leaders  of  a  certain  school  of  free  thought. 

When  Dr.  Newman  wrote  the  famous  Tract  '  No.  90,'  foi 
which  he  was  censured,  he  bowed  to  the  authority  of  his 
bishop.  But  he  did  not  admit  any  change  of  opinion  ;  and 
indeed  soon  after  the  gradual  working  of  Newman's  mind 
became  evident  to  all  the  world.  The  brightest  and  most 
penetrating  intellect  in  the  Church  of  England  was  withdrawn 
from  her  service,  and  Newman  went  over  to  the  Church  of 
Eome.  To  this  result  had  the  inquiry  conducted  him  which 
had  led  his  friend  Dr.  Pusey  merely  to  endeavour  tp  incor- 
porate some  of  the  mysticism  and  the  symbols  of  Kome  with 
the  ritual  of  the  English  Protestant  Church  ;  which  had 
brought  Keble  only  to  seek  a  more  liberal  and  truly  Christian 
temper  for  the  faith  of  the  Protestant ;  and  which  had  sent 
Francis  Newman  into  Eadicalism  and  Kationalism. 

Still  greater  was  the  practical  importance,  at  least  in 
defined  results,  of  the  movement  which  went  on  in  Scotland 
about  the  same  time. 

The  case  was  briefly  this.  During  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne  an  Act  was  passed  which  took  from  the  Church  courts 
in  Scotland  the  free  choice  as  to  the  appointment  of  pastors 
by  subjecting  the  power  of  the  presbytery  to  the  control  and 
interference  of  the  law  courts.  In  an  immense  number  of 
Scotch  parishes  the  minister  was  nominated  by  a  lay  patron ; 
and  if  the  presbytery  found  nothing  to  condemn  in  him  as  to 
*  life,  literature  and  doctrine,'  they  were  compelled  to  appoint 
him,  however  unwelcome  he  might  be  to  the  parishioners. 
Now  it  is  obvious  that  a  man  might  have  a  blameless  character, 
sound  religious  views,  and  an  excellent  education,  and  nevcr- 
tlieless  be  totally  unfitted  to  undertake  the  cliarge  of  a  Scottish 
parish.  The  efiect  of  the  power  conferred  on  the  law  courts 
and  the  patron  was  simply  in  a  great  number  of  cases  to  send 
families  away  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  into  volun- 
taryism. 

Dr.  Chalmers  became  the  leader  of  the  movement  which 
was  destined  within  two  years  from  the  time  we  are  now 
surveying  to  cause  the  disruption  of  the  ancient  Kirk  of 
Scotland.     No   man   could  be  better  fitted  for  the  task  of 


cn.  II.       SOME   TROUBLES   TO   THE  NEW  REIGN,  35 

leadership  in  such  a  movement.  He  was  beyond  comx^ari- 
son  the  foremost  man  m  the  Scottish  Church.  He  was  the 
greatest  pulpit  orator  in  Scotland,  or,  indeed,  in  Great 
Britain.  As  a  waiter  on  political  economy  he  had  made 
a  distinct  mark.  From  having  been  in  his  earlier  days 
the  minister  of  an  obscure  Scottish  village  congregation, 
he  had  suddenly  sprung  mto  fame.  He  was  the  lion  of  any 
city  which  he  happened  to  visit.  If  he  preached  in  London, 
the  church  was  crowded  with  the  leaders  of  politics,  science 
and  fashion,  eager  to  hear  him.  Chalmers  spoke  with  a 
massive  eloquence  in  keeping  with  his  powerful  frame  and  his 
broad  brow  and  his  commanding  presence.  His  speeches 
were  a  strenuous  blending  of  argument  and  emotion.  They 
appealed  at  once  to  the  strong  common  sense  and  to  the 
deep  religious  convictions  of  his  Scottish  audiences.  His 
whole  soul  was  in  his  work  as  a  leader  of  religious  move- 
ments. He  cared  little  or  nothing  for  any  popularity  or  fame 
that  he  might  have  won.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  is 
his  monument.  He  did  not  make  that  Church.  It  was  not 
the  work  of  one  man,  or,  strictly  speaking,  of  one  generation. 
It  grew  naturally  out  of  the  inevitable  struggle  between  Church 
and  State.  But  Chalmers  did  more  than  any  other  man  to 
decide  the  moment  and  the  manner  of  its  coming  into  existence, 
and  its  success  is  his  best  monument. 

On  May  18,  1843,  some  five  hundred  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Chalmers, 
seceded  from  the  old  Kirk  and  set  about  to  form  the  Free 
Church.  The  Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  made  a 
weak  effort  at  compromise  by  legislative  enactment,  but  had 
declined  to  introduce  any  legislation  which  should  free  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland  from  the  control  of  the  civil  courts,  and 
there  was  no  course  for  those  who  held  the  views  of  Dr. 
Chalmers  but  to  withdraw  from  the  Church  which  admitted 
that  claim  of  State  control.  The  history  of  Scotland  is  illus- 
trated by  many  great  national  deeds.  No  deed  it  tells  of  sur- 
passes in  dignity  and  in  moral  grandeur  that  secession — to 
cite  the  w^ords  of  the  protest — *  from  an  Establishment  which 
we  loved  and  prized,  through  interference  with  conscience, 
the  dishonour  done  to  Christ's  crown,  and  the  rejection  of  hia 
Bole  and  supreme  authority  as  King  in  his  Church.' 


36         ^  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  ni. 

CHAPTER  III. 

DECLINE   AND   FALL   OF   THE   MELBOUENB   MINISTRY. 

Meanwhile  things  were  looking  ill  with  the  Melbourne 
Ministry.  The  Jamaica  Bill  put  them  in  great  perplexity. 
This  was  a  measure  brought  in  on  April  9, 1839,  to  make  tem- 
porary provision  for  the  government  of  the  island  of  Jamaica, 
by  setting  aside  the  House  of  Assembly  for  five  years,  and 
during  that  time  empowering  the  governor  and  council  with 
three  salaried  commissioners  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  colony. 
In  other  words,  the  Melbourne  Ministry  proposed  to  suspend 
for  five  years  the  constitution  of  Jamaica.  No  body  of  persons 
can  be  more  awkwardly  placed  than  a  Whig  Ministry  proposing 
to  set  aside  a  constitutional  government  anywhere.  Such  a 
proposal  maybe  a  necessary  measure  ;  it  maybe  unavoidable  ; 
but  it  always  comes  with  a  bad  grace  from  Whigs  or  Liberals, 
and  gives  their  enemies  a  handle  against  them  which  they 
cannot  fail  to  use  to  some  purpose. 

In  the  case  of  the  Jamaica  Bill  there  was  some  excuse 
for  the  harsh  policy.  After  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  for- 
mer masters  in  the  island  found  it  very  hard  to  reconcile 
themselves  to  the  new  condition  of  things.  They  could  not 
all  at  once  understand  that  their  former  slaves  were  to  be  their 
equals  before  the  law.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  Jamaica 
negroes  were  too  ignorant  to  understand  that  they  had  acquired 
any  rights  ;  others  were  a  little  too  clamorous  in  their  assertion. 
The  Imperial  governors  and  officials  were  generally  and  justly 
eager  to  protect  the  negroes  ;  and  the  result  was  a  constant 
quarrel  between  the  Jamaica  House  of  Assembly  and  the 
representatives  of  the  Home  Government.  A  bill,  very  neces- 
sary in  itself,  was  passed  by  the  Imperial  Parliament  for  the 
better  regulation  of  prisons  in  Jamaica,  and  the  House  of 
Assembly  refused  to  submit  to  any  such  legislation.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  Melbourne  Ministry  proposed  the 
suspension  of  the  constitution  of  the  island.  The  measure 
was  opposed  not  only  by  Peel  and  the  Conservatives,  but  by 
many  liadicals.  The  Ministry  only  had  a  majority  of  five  in 
favour  of  their  measure.  Tliis,  of  course,  was  a  virtual  defeat. 
The  Ministry  acknowledged  it  and  resigned.  Their  defeat  was 
a  humiliation  ;  their  resignation  an  inevitable  submission  ;  but 
they  came  back  to  ofiice  almost  immediately  under  conditions 


cii.  III.       FALL   OF  THE  MELBOURNE  MINLSTRY.  37 

that  made  the  humiliation  more  humbhng,  and  rendered  their 
subsequent  career  more  difficult  by  far  than  their  past  struggle 
for  existence  had  been. 

The  famous  controversy  known  as  the  *  Bedchamber  Ques- 
tion '  made  a  way  back  for  the  Whigs  into  place.  Gulliver 
ought  to  have  had  an  opportunity  of  telling  such  a  story  to  the 
king  of  the  Brobdingnagians,  in  order  the  better  to  impress  him 
with  a  clear  idea  of  the  logical  beauty  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment. When  Lord  Melbourne  resigned,  the  Queen  sent  for  Peel, 
and  told  him  with  a  simple  and  girlish  frankness  that  she  was 
sorry  to  have  to  part  with  her  late  ministers,  of  whose  con- 
duct  she  entirely  approved,  but  that  she  bowed  to  constitutional 
usage.  This  must  have  been  rather  an  astonishing  beginning  to 
the  grave  and  formal  Peel ;  but  he  was  not  a  man  to  think  any 
worse  of  the  candid  yomig  Sovereign  for  her  outspoken  ways. 
The  negotiations  went  on  very  smoothly  as  to  the  colleagues 
Peel  meant  to  recommend  to  her  Majesty,  until  he  happened  to 
notice  the  composition  of  the  royal  household  as  regarded  the 
ladies  most  closely  in  attendance  on  the  Queen.  For  example, 
he  found  that  the  wife  of  Lord  Normanby  and  the  sister  of 
Lord  Morpeth  were  the  two  ladies  in  closest  attendance  on  her 
Majesty.  Now  it  has  to  be  borne  in  mind — it  was  proclaimed 
again  and  again  during  the  negotiations — that  the  chief  diffi- 
culty of  the  Conservatives  would  necessarily  be  in  Ireland, 
where  their  policy  would  be  altogether  opposed  to  that  of  the 
Whigs.  Lord  Normanby  had  been  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland 
under  the  Whigs,  and  Lord  Morpeth,  the  amiable  and  accom- 
plished Lord  Carlisle  of  later  time,  Irish  Secretary.  It  certainly 
could  not  be  satisfactory  for  Peel  to  try  to  work  a  new  Irish 
policy  while  the  closest  household  companions  of  the  Queen 
were  the  wife  and  sister  of  the  displaced  statesmen  who  directly 
represented  the  policy  he  had  to  supersede.  Had  this  point  of 
view  been  made  clear  to  the  Sovereign  at  first,  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible that  any  serious  difficulty  could  have  arisen.  The  Queen 
must  have  seen  the  obvious  reasonableness  of  Peel's  request ; 
nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  two  ladies  in  question  could 
have  desired  to  hold  their  places  under  such  circumstances. 
But  unluckily  some  misunderstanding  took  place  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  conversations  on  this  point.  Peel  only  desired  to 
press  for  the  retirement  of  the  ladies  holding  the  higher  offices  ; 
he  did  not  intend  to  ask  for  any  change  affecting  a  place  lower 
in  official  rank  than  that  01  lady  of  the  bedchamber.  But 
somehow  or  other  he  conveyed  to  the  mind  of  the  Queen  a 


38  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  iii. 

different  idea.  She  thought  he  meant  to  insist,  as  a  matter 
of  principle,  upon  the  removal  of  all  her  familiar  attendants 
and  household  associates.  Under  this  impression  she  con- 
sulted Lord  John  Eussell,  who  advised  her  on  what  he  under- 
stood to  he  the  state  of  the  facts.  On  his  advice  the  Queen 
stated  in  reply  that  she  could  not  '  consent  to  a  course  which 
she  conceives  to  be  contrary  to  usage  and  is  repugnant  to  her 
feelings.'  Sir  Kobert  Peel  held  firm  to  his  stipulation  ;  and 
the  chance  of  his  then  forming  a  Ministry  was  at  an  end. 
Lord  Melbourne  and  his  colleagues  had  to  be  recalled  ;  and  at 
a  Cabinet  meeting  they  adopted  a  minute  declaring  it  reason- 
able '  that  the  great  offices  of  the  Court  and  situations  in  the 
household  held  by  members  of  Parliament  should  be  included 
in  the  political  arrangements  made  on  a  change  in  the  Ad- 
ministration ;  but  they  are  not  of  opinion  that  a  similar  prin- 
ciple should  be  applied  or  extended  to  the  offices  held  by  ladies 
in  her  Majesty's  household.' 

In  the  country  the  incident  created  great  excitement. 
Some  Liberals  bluntly  insisted  that  it  was  not  right  in  such 
a  matter  to  consult  the  feelings  of  the  Sovereign  at  all,  and 
that  the  advice  of  the  minister,  and  his  idea  of  what  was 
for  the  good  of  the  country,  ought  alone  to  be  considered. 
Nothing  could  be  more  undesirable  than  the  position  in 
which  Lord  Melbourne  and  his  colleagues  had  allowed  the 
Sovereign  to  place  herself.  The  more  people  in  general  came 
to  think  over  the  matter,  the  more  clearly  it  was  seen  that 
Peel  was  in  the  right,  although  he  had  not  made  himself 
understood  at  first,  and  had,  perhaps,  not  shown  all  through 
enough  of  consideration  for  the  novelty  of  the  young  Sove- 
reign's position.  But  no  one  could  deliberately  maintain  the 
position  at  first  taken  up  by  the  Whigs  ;  and  in  point  of  fact 
they  were  soon  glad  to  drop  it  as  quickly  and  quietly  as  possible. 
The  whole  question,  it  may  be  said  at  once,  was  afterwards  set- 
tled by  a  sensible  compromise.  It  was  agreed  that  on  a  change 
of  Ministry  the  Queen  would  listen  to  any  representation  from 
the  incoming  Prime  Minister  as  to  the  composition  of  her 
household,  and  would  arrange  for  the  retirement  '  of  their  own 
accord  '  of  any  ladies  who  were  so  closely  related  to  the 
leaders  of  Opposition  as  to  render  their  presence  inconvenient. 
The  Whigs  came  back  to  office  utterly  discredited.  They  had 
to  tinker  up  somehow  a  new  Jamaica  Bill.  They  had  declared 
that  they  could  not  remain  in  office  unless  they  were  allowed 
to  deal  in  a  certain  way  with  Jamaica ;  and  now  that  they 


CH.  III.       FALL   OF  THE  MELBOURNE  MINISTR  Y.  39 

were  back  again  in  office,  they  could  not  avoid  trying  to  do 
something  with  the  Jamaica  business.  They  therefore  intro- 
duced a  new  bill  which  was  a  mere  compromise  put  together 
in  the  hope  of  its  being  allowed  to  pass.  It  was  allowed  to 
pass,  after  a  fashion ;  that  is,  when  the  Opposition  in  the 
House  of  Lords  had  tmkered  it  and  amended  it  at  their 
pleasure.  The  bedchamber  question  in  fact  had  thrown 
Jamaica  out  of  perspective.  The  mifortunate  island  must  do 
the  best  it  could  now ;  in  this  country  statesmen  had  graver 
matters  to  thmk  of.  Sir  Eobert  Peel  could  not  govern  with 
Lady  Normanby  ;  the  Whigs  would  not  govern  without  lier. 

The  Melbourne  Government  were  prejudiced  m  the  public 
mind  by  these  events,  and  by  the  attacks  for  which  they 
gave  so  large  an  opportmiity.  The  feeling  in  some  parts 
of  the  country  was  still  sentimentally  with  the  Queen.  At 
many  a  dinner-table  it  became  the  fashion  to  drink  the 
health  of  her  Majesty  with  a  punning  addition,  not  belongmg 
to  an  order  of  wit  any  higher  than  that  which  in  other 
days  toasted  the  King  '  over  the  water  ; '  or  prayed  of  heaven 
to  '  send  this  crumb  well  dowm.'  The  Queen  was  toasted 
as  the  sovereign  of  spirit  who  '  would  not  let  her  belles 
be  peeled.'  But  the  Ministry  were  almost  universally  believed 
to  have  placed  themselves  in  a  ridiculous  light,  and  to  have 
crept  again  into  office  '  behind  the  petticoats  of  the  ladies  in 
waiting.' 

On  January  16,  1840,  the  Queen,  opening  Parliament  in 
person,  announced  her  intention  to  marry  her  cousin,  Prince 
Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha — a  step  which  she  trusted  would 
be  '  conducive  to  the  interests  of  my  people  as  well  as  to  my 
owm  domestic  happiness.'  Li  the  discussion  which  followed  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  Sir  Kobert  Peel  observed  that  her 
Majesty  had  '  the  singular  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  gratify 
her  private  feelings,  while  she  performs  her  public  duty,  and  to 
obtain  the  best  guarantee  for  happiness  by  contracting  an 
alliance  founded  on  affection.'  Peel  spoke  the  simple  truth  ; 
it  was  indeed  a  marria^^e  founded  on  affection.  No  marria^^e 
contracted  in  the  humblest  class  could  have  been  more  entirely 
a  union  of  love,  and  more  free  from  what  might  be  called 
selfish  and  worldly  considerations.  The  Queen  had  for  a  long 
time  loved  her  cousin.  He  was  nearly  her  own  age,  the  Queen 
being  the  elder  by  three  months  and  two  or  three  days. 
Francis  Charles  Augustus  Albert  Emmanuel  was  the  full  name 
of  the  young  Prince.     He  was  the  second  son  of  Ernest.  Du ka 


40  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  iil 

of  Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,  and  of  his  wife  Louisa,  daughter  ol 
Augustus,  Duke  of  Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.  Prince  Albert  was 
born  at  the  Eosenau,  one  of  his  father's  residences,  near 
Coburg,  on  August  26,  1819. 

Prince  Albert  was  a  young  man  to  wan  the  heart  of  any 
girL     He  was  singularly  handsome,  graceful  and  gifted.     In 
princes,  as  we  know,  a  small  measure  of  beauty  and  accom- 
pliehment   suffices   to  throw  courtiers  and  court  ladies  into 
transports  of  admiration ;  but  had  Prince  Albert  been  the  son 
of  a  farmer  or  a  butler,  he  must  have  been  admired  for  his 
singular   personal   attractions.     He  had  had  a  sound  and  a 
varied  education.     He  had  been  brought  up  as  if  he  were  to 
be  a  professional  musician,  a  professional  chemist  or  botanist, 
and  a  professor  of  history  and  belles  lettres  and  the  fine  arts. 
The  scientific  and  the  literary  w^ere  remarkably  blended  in  his 
bringing-up.     He  had  begun  to  study  the  constitutional  history 
of  States,  and  was  preparing  himself  to  take  an  interest  in  poli- 
tics.    There  was  much  of  the  practical  and  business-like  about 
him,  as  he  showed  in  after-life ;  he  loved  farming,  and  took  a  deep 
interest  in  machinery  and  in  the  growth  of  industrial  science. 
His  tastes  were  for  a  quiet,  domestic  and  unostentatious  life — a 
life  of  refined  culture,  of  happy  calm  evenings,  of  art  and  poetry 
and  genial  communion  with  Nature.     He  was  made  happy  by 
the  songs  of  birds,  and  delighted  in  sitting  alone  and  playing 
the  organ.     But  there  was  in  him  too  a  great  deal  of  the 
political  philosopher.     He  loved  to  hear  political  and  other 
questions  w^ell  argued  out,  and  once  observed   that   a   false 
argument  jarred  on  his  nerves  as  much  as  a  false  note  in  music. 
He  seems  to  have  had  from  his  youth  an  all-pervading  sense  of 
duty.     So  far  as  we  can  guess,  he  was  almost  absolutely  free 
from  the  ordinary  follies,  not  to  say  sins,  of  youth.     Young  as 
he  was  when  he  married  the  Queen,  he  devoted  himself  at  once 
to  what  he  conscientiously  believed  to  be  the  duties  of  his 
station  with  a  self-control  and  self-devotion  rare  even  among 
the  aged,  and  almost  unknown  in  youth.     He  gave  up  every 
habit,  however  familiar  and  dear,  every  predilection,  no  mat- 
ter how  sweet,  every  indulgence  of  sentiment  or  amusement, 
that  in  any  way  threatened  to  interfere  with  the  steadfast  per- 
formance of  the  part  he  had  assigned  to  himself.     No  man 
ever  devoted  himself  more  faithfully  to  the  diflicult  duties  of  a 
high  and  new  situation,  or  kept  more  strictly  to  his  resolve. 
It  was  no  task  to  him  to  be  a  tender  husband  and  a  loving 
lather.     This  was  a  part  of  his  sweet,  pure  and  alfectionate 


CH.  III.       FALL   OF  THE  MELBOURNE  MINISTRY.  41 

nature.    It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  any  other  queen 
ever  had  a  married  life  so  happy  as  that  of  Queen  Victoria. 

The  marriage  of  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  took  place  on 
February  10,  1840.  The  reception  given  by  the  people  in 
general  to  the  Prince  on  his  landing  in  England  a  few  days 
before  the  ceremony,  and  on  the  day  of  the  marriage,  was 
cordial  and  even  enthusiastic.  But  it  is  not  certain  whether 
there  was  a  very  cordial  feeling  to  the  Prince  among  all  classes 
of  politicians.  A  rumour  of  the  most  absurd  kind  had  got 
abroad  in  certain  circles  that  Prince  Albert  was  not  a  Protes- 
tant— that  he  was  in  fact  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Kome. 
Somewhat  unfortunately,  the  declaration  of  the  intended 
marriage  to  the  Privy  Council  did  not  mention  the  fact  that 
Albert  was  a  Protestant  Prince.  The  result  was  that  in  the 
debate  on  the  address  in  the  House  of  Lords,  an  unseemly 
altercation  took  place,  an  altercation  the  more  to  be  re- 
gretted because  it  might  have  been  so  easily  spared.  The 
question  was  bluntly  raised  by  no  less  a  person  than  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  whether  the  future  husband  of  the  Queen 
was  or  was  not  a  Protestant.  The  Duke  actually  charged  the 
Ministry  with  having  purposely  left  out  the  word  '  Protestant ' 
in  the  announcements  in  order  that  they  might  not  offend 
their  Irish  and  Catholic  supporters,  and  moved  that  the  word 
'  Protestant '  be  inserted  in  the  congratulatory  address  to  the 
Queen,  and  he  carried  his  point,  although  Lord  Melbourne 
held  to  the  opinion  that  the  word  was  unnecessary  in  describ- 
ing a  Prince  who  was  not  only  a  Protestant  but  descended 
from  the  most  Protestant  family  in  Europe.  The  lack  of 
judgment  and  tact  on  the  part  of  the  Mmistry  was  never  more 
clearly  shown  than  in  the  original  omission  of  the  word. 

A  few  months  after  the  marriage,  a  bill  was  passed  naming 
Prince  Albert  Kegent  in  the  possible  event  of  the  death  of  the 
Queen,  leavmg  issue.  The  passing  of  this  bill  was  naturally 
regarded  as  of  much  importance  to  Prince  Albert.  It  gave  him 
to  some  extent  the  status  in  the  country  which  he  had  not  had 
before.  No  one  could  have  started  with  a  more  resolute 
determination  to  stand  clear  of  party  politics  than  Prince 
Albert.  He  accepted  at  once  his  position  as  the  husband  of 
the  Queen  of  a  constitutional  country.  His  own  idea  of  his 
duty  was  that  he  should  be  the  private  secretary  and  unofficial 
counsellor  q^  the  Queen.  To  this  purpose  he  devoted  himself 
unswervingly.  Outside  that  part  of  his  duties,  he  constituted 
himself  a  sort  of  minister  without  portfolio  of  art  and  educa- 


42  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  ill. 

tion.  He  took  an  interest,  and  often  a  ler.ding  part,  in  all 
projects  and  movements  relating  to  the  spread  of  education, 
the  culture  of  art,  and  the  promotion  of  industrial  science. 
Yet  it  v.-as  long  before  he  was  thoroughly  understood  by  the 
country.  It  was  long  before  he  became  in  any  degree  jDopular, 
and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  ever  was  thoroughly  and 
generally  popular.  Not  perhaps  until  his  untimely  death  did 
Ihe  country  find  out  how  entirely  disinterested  and  faithful  his 
life  had  been,  and  how  he  had  made  the  discharge  of  duty  his 
business  and  his  task.  Prince  Albert  had  not  the  ways  of  an 
Englishman,  and  the  tendency  of  Englishmen,  then  as  now, 
was  to  assume  that  to  have  manners  other  than  those  of  an 
Englishman  was  to  be  so  far  unworthy  of  confidence.  He 
was  not  made  to  shine  in  commonplace  society.  He  could  talk 
admirably  about  something,  but  he  had  not  the  gift  of  talking 
about  nothing,  and  probably  would  not  have  cared  much  to  cul- 
tivate such  a  faculty.  He  was  fond  of  suggesting  small  innova- 
tions and  improvements  in  established  systems,  to  the  annoy- 
ance of  men  with  set  ideas,  who  liked  their  own  ways  best.  Thus 
it  happened  that  he  remained  for  many  years,  if  not  exactly 
miappreciated,  yet  not  thoroughly  appreciated,  and  that  a  con- 
siderable and  very  influential  section  of  society  was  always  ready 
to  cavil  at  what  he  said,  and  find  motive  for  suspicion  in  most 
things  that  he  did.  Perhaps  he  was  best  understood  and  most 
cordially  appreciated  among  the  poorer  classes  of  his  wife's  sub- 
jects. He  found  also  more  cordial  approval  generally  among 
the  Eadicals  than  among  the  Tories,  or  even  the  Whigs. 

One  reform  which  Prince  Albert  worked  earnestly  to  bring 
about,  was  the  abolition  of  duelling  in  the  army.  Nothing  can 
testify  more  strikingly  to  the  rapid  growth  of  a  genuine  civili- 
sation in  Queen  Victoria's  reign  than  the  utter  discontinuance 
of  the  duelling  system.  When  the  Queen  came  to  the  throne, 
and  for  years  after,  it  was  still  in  full  force.  The  duel  plays 
a  conspicuous  part  in  the  fiction  and  the  drama  of  the  Sove- 
reign's earlier  years.  It  was  a  common  incident  of  all  poli- 
tical controversies.  It  was  an  episode  of  most  contested 
elections.  It  was  often  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  deciding 
the  right  or  wrong  of  a  half-drunken  quarrel  over  a  card  table. 
It  formed  as  common  a  theme  of  gossip  as  an  elopement  or  a 
bankruptcy.  Most  of  the  eminent  statesmen  who  were 
prominent  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Queen's  reig^  liad  fought 
duels.  At  the  present  hour  a  duel  in  England  would  seem  as 
absurd  and  barbarous  an  anachronism  as  an  ordeal  by  touch 
or  a  witch-burning. 


CH.  III.       FALL   OF  THE  MELBOURNE  MINISTRY,  43 

Tliis  is  perhaps  as  suitable  a  place  as  any  other  to  mtro- 
duce  some  notice  of  the  attempts  that  were  made  from  time  to 
time  upon  the  life  of  the  Queen.  It  is  proper  to  say  somethmg 
of  them,  although  not  one  possessed  the  slightest  political  im- 
portance, or  could  be  said  to  illustrate  anything  more  than 
sheer  lunacy,  or  that  morbid  vanity  and  thirst  for  notoriety 
that  is  nearly  aldn  to  genuine  madness.  The  first  attempt  was 
made  on  June  10,  1840,  by  Edward  Oxford,  a  potboy  of  seven- 
teen, who  fired  two  shots  at  the  Queen  as  she  was  driving  up 
Constitution  Hill  w4th  Prince  Albert,  but  happily  missed  in 
each  case.  The  jury  pronounced  him  insane,  and  he  was  ordered 
to  be  kept  in  a  lunatic  asylum  during  her  Majesty's  pleasure. 
On  May  30,  1842,  a  man  named  John  Francis,  son  of  a 
machmist  in  Drury  Lane,  fired  a  pistol  at  the  Queen  as  she  was 
driving  down  Constitution  Hill,  on  the  very  spot  where  Oxford's 
attempt  was  made.  Francis  was  sentenced  to  death,  but  her 
Majesty  herself  was  anxious  that  the  death-sentence  should 
not  be  carried  into  effect,  and  it  was  finally  commuted  to  one 
of  transportation  for  life.  The  very  day  after  this  mitigation 
of  punishment  became  publicly  known  another  attempt  was 
made  by  a  hunch-backed  lad  named  Bean,  as  the  Queen  was 
pa?.>ing  fi-om  Buckingham  Palace  to  the  Chapel  Eoyal.  The 
ambition  which  fired  most  or  all  of  the  miscreants  who  thus 
disturbed  the  Queen  and  the  country  was  that  of  the  mounte- 
bank rather  than  of  the  assassin.  A  bill  was  mtroduced 
by  Sir  Eobert  Peel  making  such  attempts  punishable  by  trans- 
portation for  seven  years,  or  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not 
exceeding  three  years,  '  the  culprit  to  be  publicly  or  privately 
whipped  as  often  and  in  such  manner  as  the  court  shall 
direct,  not  exceeding  thrice.'  Bean  was  convicted  under  this 
act  and  sentenced  to  ei,t;iiteen  months'  imprisonment  in  Mill- 
bank  Penitentiary.  This  did  not,  however,  conclude  the 
attacks  on  the  Queen.  An  Irish  bricklayer,  named  Hamilton, 
fired  a  pistol,  charged  only  with  powder,  at  her  Majesty,  on 
Constitution  Hill,  on  May  19, 1849,  and  was  sentenced  to  seven 
years'  transportation.  A  man  named  Kobert  Pate,  once  a 
lieutenant  of  hussars,  struck  her  Majesty  on  the  face  with  a 
stick  as  she  was  leaving  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's  residence  in 
her  carriage  on  May  27,  1850.  This  man  was  sentenced  to 
seven  years'  transportation,  but  the  judge  paid  so  much  atten- 
tion to  the  plea  of  insanity  set  up  on  his  behalf,  as  to  omit 
from  his  punishment  the  whipping  which  might  have  been 
ordered.     On  February  29,  1872,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  named 


44  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  iv. 

Arthur  O'Connor,  presented  a  pistol  at  the  Queen  as  she  was 
entermg  Buckingham  Palace  after  a  drive.  The  pistol,  how- 
ever, proved  to  be  unloaded — an  antique  and  useless  or  harm- 
less weapon,  with  a  flint  lock  which  was  broken,  and  in  the 
barrel  a  piece  of  greasy  red  rag.  The  wretched  lad  held  a 
paper  in  one  hand  which  was  found  to  be  some  sort  of  peti- 
tion on  behalf  of  the  Fenian  prisoners.  He  was  sentenced  to 
twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  a  whipping.  Ten  years 
later,  on  March  2,  1882,  a  man  named  Eoderick  Maclean 
fired  at  and  missed  the  Queen  as  she  was  driving  from  the 
railway  station  at  Windsor.  Maclean  was  found  to  be  a 
person  of  weak  intellect  who  had  at  one  time  been  positively 
insane,  and  the  attempt  had  no  political  significance  whatever. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    AFGHAN    WAR. 

The  earliest  days  of  the  Peel  Ministry  fell  upon  trouble,  not 
indeed  at  home,  but  abroad.  At  home  the  prospect  still  seemed 
bright.  The  birth  of  the  Queen's  eldest  son  was  an  event 
welcomed  by  national  congratulation.  There  was  still  great 
distress  in  the  agricultural  districts  ;  but  there  was  a  general 
confidence  that  the  financial  genius  of  Peel  would  quickly  find 
some  way  to  make  burdens  light,  and  that  the  condition,  of 
things  all  over  the  country  would  begin  to  mend.  It  was  a 
region  far  removed  from  the  knowledge  and  the  thoughts  of 
most  Englishmen  that  supplied  the  news  now  beginning  to 
come  into  England  day  after  day,  and  to  thrill  the  country 
with  the  tale  of  one  of  the  greatest  disasters  to  English  policy 
and  English  arms  to  be  found  in  all  the  record  of  our  dealings 
with  the  East. 

News  travelled  slowly  then;  and  it  was  quite  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  things  that  some  part  of  the  empire  might 
be  torn  with  convulsion  for  months  before  London  knew  that 
the  even  and  ordinary  condition  of  things  had  been  disturbed. 
In  this  instance,  the  rejoicings  at  the  accession  of  the  young 
Queen  were  still  going  on,  when  a  series  of  events  had  begun 
in  Central  Asia  destined  to  excite  the  profoundest  emotion  in 
England,  and  to  exercise  the  most  powerful  influence  u])on 
our  foreign  policy  down  to  the  present  hour.     On  SeptemL,er 


CH.  IV.  THE  AFGHAN  WAR.  45 

20,  1837,  Captain  Alexander  Burnes  arriA-ed  at  Cabul,  tli3 
capital  of  the  state  of  Cabul,  in  the  north  of  Afghanistan. 
Burnes  was  a  fa^mous  Orientalist  and  traveller ;  he  had  con- 
ducted an  expedition  into  Central  Asia ;  had  published  hig 
travels  in  Bokhara,  and  had  been  sent  on  a  mission  by  the 
Indian  Government,  in  whose  service  he  was,  to  study  the 
navigation  of  the  Indus.  The  object  of  his  journey  to  Cabul 
in  1837  was  to  enter  into  commercial  relations  with  Dost 
Mahomed,  then  ruler  of  Cabul,  and  with  other  chiefs  of  the 
western  regions. 

The  great  region  of  Afghanistan  has  been  called  the  land 
of  transition  between  Eastern  and  Western  Asia.  All  the 
great  ways  that  lead  from  Persia  to  India  pass  through  that 
region.  There  is  a  proverb  which  declares  that  no  one  can  be 
king  of  Hindostan  without  first  becoming  lord  of  Cabul.  The 
Afghans  are  the  ruling  nation,  but  among  them  had  long  been 
settled  Hindoos,  Arabs,  Armenians,  Abyssinians,  and  men  of 
other  races  and  religions.  The  founder  of  the  Afghan  empire, 
Ahmed  Shah,  died  in  1773.  He  had  made  an  empire  which 
stretched  from  Herat  on  the  west  to  Sirhind  on  the  east,  and 
from  the  Oxus  and  Cashmere  on  the  north  to  the  Arabian  Sea 
and  the  mouths  of  the  Indus  on  the  south.  The  death  of  his 
son,  Timur  Shah,  delivered  the  kingdom  up  to  the  hostile 
factions,  mtrigues  and  quarrels  of  his  sons ;  the  leaders  of  a 
powerful  tribe,  the  Barukzyes,  took  advantage  of  the  events 
that  arose  out  of  this  condition  of  things  to  dethrone  the 
descendants  of  Ahmed  Shah.  When  Captain  Burnes  visited 
Afghanistan  in  183^,  the  only  part  of  all  their  great  inheri- 
tance which  yet  remained  with  the  descendants  of  Ahmed  Shah 
was  the  principality  of  Herat.  The  remainder  of  Afghanistan 
was  parcelled  out  between  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  brothers. 
Dost  Mahomed  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  ability  and  energy. 
Although  he  was  a  usurper  he  w^as  a  sincere  lover  of  his 
country,  and  on  the  whole  a  wise  and  just  ruler.  When  Captain 
Burnes  visited  Dost  Mahomed,  Dost  Mahomed  professed  to 
be  a  sincere  friend  of  the  English  Government  and  people. 
There  was,  however,  at  that  time  a  quarrel  going  on  between 
the  Shah  of  Persia  and  the  Prince  of  Herat,  the  last  enthroned 
representative,  as  has  been  already  said,  of  the  great  family  on 
whose  fall  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  brothers  had  mounted  into 
power.  The  strong  impression  at  the  time  in  England,  and 
among  the  authorities  in  India,  was  that  Persia  herself  was 
but  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  Eussia,  and  that  the  attack  on 


46  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  iv. 

Herat  was  the  first  step  of  a  great  movement  of  Eussia  towards 
our  Indian  dominion. 

Undoubtedly  Russia  did  set  herself  for  some  reason  to  win 
the  friendship  and  alliance  of  Dost  Mahomed ;  and  Captain 
Burnes  was  for  his  part  engaged  in  the  same  endeavour. 
Burnes  always  insisted  that  Dost  Mahomed  himself  was  sin- 
cerely anxious  to  become  an  ally  of  England,  and  that  he 
offered  more  than  once  on  his  own  free  part  to  dismiss  the 
Piussian  agents  even  without  seeing  them,  if  Burnes  desired 
him  to  do  so.  But  for  some  reason  Burnes's  superiors  had 
the  profoundest  distrust  of  Dost  Mahomed.  It  was  again  and 
again  impressed  on  Burnes  that  he  must  regard  Dost  Mahomed 
as  a  treacherous  enemy  and  as  a  man  playing  the  part  of  Persia 
and  of  Russia. 

Captain  Burnes  then  was  placed  in  the  painful  difficulty 
of  having  to  carry  out  a  policy  of  which  he  entirely  disap- 
proved. He  believed  in  Dost  Mahomed  as  a  friend,  and  he 
was  ordered  to  regard  him  as  an  enemy.  On  the  other  hand, 
Dost  Mahomed  was  placed  in  a  position  of  great  difiiculty  and 
danger.  If  England  would  not  support  him,  he  must  for  his 
own  safety  find  alliances  elsewhere  ;  in  Russian  statecraft  for 
example .  Runj  eet  Singh ,  the  daring  and  successful  adventurer 
who  had  annexed  the  whole  province  of  Cashmere  to  his 
dominions,  was  the  enemy  of  Dost  Mahomed  and  the  faithful 
ally  of  England.  Dost  Mahomed  thought  the  British  Govern- 
ment could  assist  him  in  coming  to  terms  with  Runj  eet  Singh, 
and  Burnes  had  assured  him  that  the  British  Government 
would  do  all  it  could  to  establish  satisfactory  terms  of  peace 
between  Afghanistan  and  the  Punjaub,  over  which  Runj  eet 
Singh  ruled.  Burnes,  however,  was  unable  to  impress  his 
superiors  with  any  belief  either  in  Dost  Mahomed  or  in  the 
policy  which  he  himself  advocated.  The  English  Government 
had  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  his  despatches  in  so 
mutilated  and  altered  a  form,  that  Burnes  was  made  to  seem 
as  if  he  actually  approved  and  recommended  the  policy  which 
he  especially  warned  us  to  avoid.  The  result  was  that  Lord 
Auckland,  the  Governor- General  of  India,  at  length  resolved 
to  treat  Dost  Mahomed  as  an  enemy,  and  to  drive  him  from 
Cabul.  Lord  Auckland,  therefore,  entered  into  a  treaty  with 
Rmijeet  Singh  and  Shah  Soojah-ool-Moolk,  the  exiled  repre- 
sentative of  what  we  may  call  the  legitimist  rulers  of 
Afghanistan,  for  the  restoration  of  the  latter  to  the  throne  of 
his  ancestors,  and  for  the  destruction  of  the  power  of  Dost 
Mahomed. 


CH.  IV.  THE  AFGHAN   WAR.  4f- 

Sliah  Soojah-ool-]\Ioolk  was  at  the  time  living  in  exile, 
without  the  faintest  hope  of  ever  again  being  restored  to  hia 
dominions.  We  pulled  the  poor  man  out  of  his  obscurity, 
told  him  that  his  people  were  yearning  for  him,  and  that  we 
would  set  him  on  his  throne  once  more. 

We  conquered  Dost  Mahomed  and  dethroned  him.  He 
made  a  bold  and  brilliant,  sometimes  even  a  splendid  resistance. 
As  we  approached  Cabul,  Dost  Mahomed  abandoned  his  capital 
and  fled  with  a  few  horsemen  across  the  Indus.  Shah  Soojali 
entered  Cabul  accompanied  by  the  British  officers.  It  was  to 
have  been  a  triumphal  entry.  The  hearts  of  those  who  believed 
in  his  cause  must  have  sunk  v/ithin  them  when  they  saw  how 
the  Shah  was  received  by  the  people.  The  city  received  him 
in  sullen  silence.  Few  of  its  people  condescended  even  to 
turn  out  to  see  him  as  he  passed.  The  vast  majority  stayed 
away  and  disdained  even  to  look  at  him.  One  would  have 
thought  that  the  least  observant  eye  must  have  seen  that  his 
throne  could  not  last  a  moment  longer  than  the  time  during 
which  the  strength  of  Britain  was  willing  to  support  it.  The 
British  army,  however,  withdrew,  leaving  only  a  contingent 
of  some  eight  thousand  men,  besides  the  Shah's  own  hirelings, 
to  maintam  him  for  the  present.  Sir  W.-Macnaghten  seems 
to  have  really  believed  that  the  work  was  done,  and  that  Shah 
Soojali  was  as  safe  on  his  throne  as  Queen  Victoria.  He  was 
destined  to  be  very  soon  and  very  cruelly  undeceived. 

Dost  Mahomed  made  more  than  one  effort  to  regain  his 
place.  He  invaded  Shah  Soojah's  dominions,  and  on  November 
2,  1840,  he  won  the  admiration  of  the  English  themselves  by 
the  brilliant  stand  he  made  against  them.  In  this  battle  of 
Purwandurrah  victory  might  not  unreasonably  have  been 
claimed  for  Dost  Mahomed.  But  Dost  Mahomed  had  the 
wisdom  of  a  statesman  as  well  as  the  genius  of  a  soldier.  He 
knew  well  that  he  could  not  hold  out  against  the  strength  of 
England.  The  evening  after  his  brilliant  exploit  in  the  field 
Dost  Mahomed  rode  quietly  up  to  the  quarters  of  Sir  W. 
Macnaghten,  announced  himself  as  Dost  Mahomed,  tendered 
to  the  envoy  the  sword  that  had  flashed  so  splendidly  across 
the  field  of  the  previous  day's  fight,  and  surrendered  himself 
a  prisoner.  His  sword  was  returned  ;  he  was  treated  with  all 
honour ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  he  was  sent  to  India, 
where  a  residence  and  a  revenue  were  assigned  to  him. 

But  the  withdrawal  of  Dost  Mahomed  from  the  scene  did 
nothing  to  secure  the  reign  of  the  unfortunate  Shah  Soojah. 


48  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  iv. 

Sir  W.  Macnagliten  was  warned  of  danger,  but  seemed  to  take 
no  heed.  Some  fatal  blindness  appears  to  have  suddenly  fallen 
on  the  eyes  of  our  people  in  Cabul.  On  November  2,  1841, 
an  insurrection  broke  out.  Sir  Alexander  Burnes  lived  in  the 
city  itself ;  Sir  W.  Macnagliten  and  the  military  commander, 
Major-General  Elpliinstone,  were  with  the  troops  in  canton- 
ments at  some  little  distance  outside  the  city.  The  insurrec- 
tion might  have  been  put  down  in  the  first  instance  easily, 
but  it  was  allowed  to  grow  up  without  attempt  at  control. 
Sir  Alexander  Burnes  could  not  be  got  to  believe  that  it  was 
anything  serious  even  when  a  fanatical  and  furious  mob  were 
besieging  his  own  house.  The  fanatics  were  especially  bitter 
against  Burnes,  because  they  believed  that  he  had  been  guilty 
of  treachery.  They  accused  him  of  having  pretended  to  be 
the  friend  of  Dost  Mahomed,  deceived  him,  and  brought  the 
English  into  the  country.  To  the  last  Burnes  refused  to 
believe  that  he  was  in  danger.  He  harangued  the  raging 
mob,  and  endeavoured  to  bring  them  to  reason.  He  was 
murdered  in  the  tumult.  He  and  his  brother  and  all  those 
with  them  were  hacked  to  pieces  with  Afghan  knives.  He 
was  only  in  his  thirty- seventh  year  when  he  was  murdered. 
Fate  seldom  showed^with  more  strange  and  bitter  malice  her 
proverbial  irony  than  when  she  made  him  the  first  victim  of 
the  policy  adopted  in  despite  of  his  best  advice  and  his  strongest 
warnings. 

The  murder  of  Burnes  was  only  a  beginning.  The  whole 
country  threw  itself  into  insurrection.  The  Afghans  attacked 
the  cantonments  and  actually  compelled  the  English  to 
abandon  the  forts  in  which  all  our  commissariat  was  stored. 
We  were  thus  threatened  with  famine  even  if  we  could  resist 
the  enemy  in  arms.  We  were  strangely  unfortunate  in  our 
civil  and  military  leaders.  Sir  W.  Macnagliten  was  a  man 
of  high  character  and  good  purpose,  but  he  was  weak  and 
credulous.  The  commander,  General  Elpliinstone,  was  old, 
infirm,  tortured  by  disease,  broken  down  both  in  mind  and  body, 
incapable  of  forming  a  purpose  of  his  own,  or  of  holding  to 
one  suggested  by  anybody  else.  His  second  in  command  was 
a  far  stronger  and  abler  man,  but  unhappily  the  two  could 
never  agree. 

A  new  figure  appeared  on  the  scene,  a  dark  and  a  fierce 
apparition.  This  was  Akbar  Khan,  the  favourite  son  of  Dost 
Maliomed.  He  was  a  daring,  a  clever,  an  unscrupulous  young 
man.     From  the  moment  when  he  entered  Cabul  lie  becanio 


Cii.  IV.  THE,  AFGHAN   WAR,  49 

the  real  leader  of  the  insurrection  against  Shah  Soojah  and 
us.  Macnaghten,  persuaded  by  the  military  commander 
that  the  position  of  things  was  hopeless,  consented  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  Akbar  Khan.  Akbar  Khan  received 
him  at  first  with  contemptuous  insolence— as  a  haughty  con- 
queror receives  some  ignoble  and  humiliated  adversary.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  British  troops  should  quit  Afghanistan  at 
once  ;  that  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  family  should  be  sent  back 
to  Afghanistan;  that  on  his  return  the  unfortunate  Shah 
Soojah  should  be  allowed  to  take  himself  off  to  India  or  where 
he  would ;  and  that  some  British  officers  should  be  left  at 
Cabul  as  hostages  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  conditions. 

The  evacuation  did  not  take  place  at  once,  although  the 
fierce  winter  was  setting  in,  and  the  snow  was  falling  heavily, 
ommously.  On  both  sides  there  were  dallyings  and  delays.  At 
last  Akbar  Khan  made  a  new  and  startling  proposition  to  our 
envoy.  It  was  that  they  two  should  enter  into  a  secret  treaty, 
should  unite  their  arms  against  the  other  chiefs,  and  should 
keep  Shah  Soojah  on  the  throne  as  nommal  king,  wdth  Akbar 
Khan  as  his  vizier.  Macnaghten  caught  at  the  proposals. 
He  had  entered  into  terms  of  negotiation  with  the  Afghan 
chiefs  together ;  he  now  consented  to  enter  into  a  secret  treaty 
with  one  of  the  chiefs  to  turn  their  joint  arms  against  the 
others.  It  would  be  idle  and  shameful  to  attempt  to  defend 
such  a  policy.  When  every  excuse  has  been  thought  of,  we 
must  still  be  glad  to  believe  that  there  are  not  many  English- 
men who  would,  under  any  circumstances,  have  consented 
even  to  give  a  hearing  to  the  proposals  of  Akbar  Khan. 

Macnaghten' s  error  was  dearly  expiated.  He  went  out 
at  noon  next  day  to  confer  with  Akbar  Khan  on  the  banks  of 
the  neighbouring  river.  Three  of  his  officers  were  with  him. 
Akbar  Khan  was  ominously  surrounded  by  friends  and  re- 
tainers. Not  many  words  were  spoken  ;  the  expected  con- 
ference had  hardly  begun  when  a  signal  was  given  or  an  order 
issued  by  Akbar  Khan,  and  the  envoy  and  the  officers  were 
suddenly  seized  from  behind.  A  scene  of  wild  confusion 
followed,  in  which  hardly  anythmg  is  clear  and  certain  but 
the  one  most  horrible  incident.  The  envoy  struggled  with 
Akbar  Khan,  who  had  himself  seized  Macnaghten  ;  Akbar 
Khan  drew  from  his  belt  one  of  a  pair  of  pistols  which 
Macnaghten  had  presented  to  him  a  short  time  before,  and 
shot  him  through  the  body.  The  fanatics  who  were  crowding 
round  hacked  the  body  to  pieces  with  their  knives.  Ot  the 
3 


50  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  iv. 

three  officers  one  was  killed  on  the  spot ;  the  other  two  were 
forced  to  mount  Afghan  horses  and  carried  away  as  prisoners. 

It  seems  certain  that  the  treachery  of  Akbar,  base  as  it 
was,  did  not  contemplate  more  than  the  seizm'e  of  the  envoy 
and  his  officers.  On  the  fatal  day  the  latter  resisted  and 
struggled  ;  Akbar  Khan  heard  a  cry  of  alarm  that  the  English 
soldiers  were  coming  out  of  cantonments  to  rescue  the  envoy ; 
and,  wild  with  passion,  he  suddenly  drew  his  pistol  and  fired. 
This  was  the  statement  made  again  and  again  by  Akbar  Khan 
himself.  The  explanation  does  not  much  relieve  the  darkness 
of  Akbar  Khan's  character.  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason 
to  suppose  that  he  would  have  shrunk  from  any  treachery 
or  any  cruelty  which  served  his  purpose.  But  it  is  well  to 
bear  in  mind  that  poor  Macnaghten  would  not  have  been 
murdered  had  he  not  consented  to  meet  Akbar  Khan  and  treat 
with  him  on  a  proposition  to  which  an  English  official  should 
never  have  listened. 

The  little  English  force  in  the  cantonments  did  not  know 
until  the  following  day  that  any  calamity  had  befallen  the 
envoy.  On  December  24,  1841,  came  a  letter  from  one  ol  the 
officers  seized  by  Akbar  Khan,  accompanying  proposals  for  a 
treaty  from  the  Afghan  chiefs.  It  is  hard  now  to  understand 
how  any  English  officers  could  have  consented  to  enter  into 
terms  with  the  murderers  of  Macnaghten  before  his  mangled 
body  could  well  have  ceased  to  bleed.  We  can  all  see  the 
difficulty  of  their  position.  General  Elphinstone  and  his 
second  in  command,  Brigadier  Shelton,  were  convinced  that 
it  would  be  equally  impossible  to  stay  where  they  were  or  to 
cut  their  way  through  the  Afghans.  But  it  might  have 
occurred  to  many  that  they  were  nevertheless  not  bound  to 
treat  with  the  Afghans  ;  that  they  were  not  ordered  by  fate  to 
accept  whatever  the  conquerors  chose  to  offer.  One  English 
officer  of  mark  did  counsel  his  superiors  in  this  spirit.  This 
was  Major  Eldred  Pottinger.  Pottinger  was  for  cutting  their 
way  through  all  enemies  and  difficulties  as  far  as  they  could, 
and  then  occupying  the  ground  with  their  dead  bodies.  But 
his  advice  was  hardly  taken  into  consideration.  It  was  deter- 
mined to  treat  with  the  Afghans ;  and  treating  with  the 
Afghans  now  meant  accepting  any  terms  the  Afghans  chose 
to  impose  on  their  fallen  enemies.  In  the  negotiations  that 
went  on  some  written  documents  were  exchanged.  One  of 
these,  dra^\ni  up  ])y  the  English  negotiators,  contains  an 
appeal  to  the  Afghan   conquerors  which  we  believe   to   be 


CH.  IV.  THE  AFGHAN  WAR.  51 

absolutely  unique  in  the  history  of  British  dealings  with 
armed  enemies.  '  In  friendship,  kindness  and  consideration 
are  necessary,  not  overpowermg  the  weak  with  sufferings !  * 
In  friendship  ! — we  appealed  to  the  friendship  of  Macnaghten'g 
murderers  ;  to  the  friendship,  in  any  case,  of  the  man  whose 
father  we  had  dethroned  and  driven  into  exile.  Not  over- 
powermg the  weak  with  sufferings  !  The  weak  were  the 
English  !  One  might  fancy  he  was  reading  the  plaintive  and 
piteous  appeal  of  some  forlorn  and  feeble  tribe  of  helpless 
half-breeds  for  the  mercy  of  arrogant  and  mastering  rulers. 
Only  the  other  day,  it  would  seem,  these  men  had  received  in 
surrender  the  bright  sword  of  Dost  Mahomed.  Now  they 
could  only  plead  for  a  little  gentleness  of  consideration,  and 
had  no  thought  of  resistance,  and  did  not  any  longer  seem  to 
know  how  to  die. 

We  accepted  the  terms  of  treaty  offered  to  us.  The 
English  were  at  once  to  take  themselves  off  out  of  Afghan- 
istan, giving  up  all  their  guns  except  six,  which  they  were 
allowed  to  retain  for  their  necessary  defence  in  their  mournful 
journey  home  ;  they  were  to  leave  behmd  all  the  treasure,  and 
to  guarantee  the  payment  of  something  additional  for  the  safe 
conduct  of  the  poor  little  army  to  Peshawur  or  to  Jellalabad ; 
and  they  were  to  hand  over  six  officers  as  hostages  for  the 
due  fulfilment  of  the  conditions.  The  conditions  included  the 
immediate  release  of  Dost  Mahomed  and  his  family  and  their 
return  to  Afghanistan.  When  the  treaty  was  signed,  the 
officers  who  had  been  seized  when  Macnaghten  was  murdered 
were  released. 

The  withdrawal  from  Cabul  began.  It  was  the  heart  of  a 
cruel  winter.  The  English  had  to  make  their  way  through 
the  awful  Pass  of  Koord  Cabul.  This  stupendous  gorge  runs 
for  some  five  miles  between  mountain  ranges  so  narrow,  lofty 
and  grim,  that  in  the  winter  season  the  rays  of  the  sun  can 
hardly  pierce  its  darkness  even  at  the  noontide.  Down  the 
centre  dashed  a  precipitous  mountain  torrent  so  fiercely  that 
the  stern  frost  of  that  terrible  time  could  not  stay  its  course. 
The  snow  lay  in  masses  on  the  ground  ;  the  rocks  and  stones 
that  raised  their  heads  above  the  snow  in  the  way  of  the 
unfortunate  travellers  were  slippery  with  frost.  Soon  the 
white  snow  began  to  be  stained  and  splashed  with  blood. 
Fearful  as  this  Koord  Cabul  Pass  was,  it  was  only  a  degree 
worse  than  the  road  which  for  two  whole  days  the  English 
had  to  traverse  to  reach  it.     The  army  v^^hich  set  out  from 


52  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  iv. 

Cabul  numbered  more  than  four  thousand  fighting  men,  of 
whom  Europeans,  it  should  be  said,  formed  but  a  small  pro- 
portion ;  and  some  twelve  thousand  camp  followers  of  all 
kinds.  There  were  also  many  women  and  children.  Lady 
Macnaghten,  widow  of  the  murdered  envoy ;  Lady  Sale, 
whose  gallant  husband  was  holding  Jellalabad  at  the  near 
end  of  the  Khyber  Pass  tow^ards  the  Indian  frontier ;  Mrs. 
Sturt,  her  daughter,  soon  to  be  widowed  by  the  death  of  her 
young  husband  ;  Mrs.  Trevor  and  her  seven  children,  and 
many  other  pitiable  fugitives.  The  winter  journey  would 
have  been  cruel  and  dangerous  enough  in  time  of  peace  ;  but 
this  journey  had  to  be  accomplished  in  the  midst  of  something 
far  worse  than  common  war.  At  every  step  of  the  road, 
every  opening  of  the  rocks,  the  unhappy  crowd  of  confused 
and  heterogeneous  fugitives  were  beset  by  bknds  of  savage 
fanatics,  who  with  their  long  guns  and  long  knives  were 
murde]-ing  all  they  could  reach.  The  English  soldiers,  weary, 
weak  and  crippled  by  frost,  could  make  but  a  poor  fight  against 
the  savage  Afghans.  Men,  women  and  children,  horses,  ponies, 
camels,  the  wounded,  the  dying,  the  dead,  all  crowded  together 
in  almost  inextricable  confusion  among  the  snow  and  amid 
the  relentless  enemies. 

Akbar  Khan  constantly  appeared  on  the  scene  during  this 
journey  of  terror.  At  every  opening  or  break  of  the  long 
straggling  flight  he  and  his  little  band  of  followers  showed 
themselves  on  the  horizon,  trying  still  to  protect  the  English 
from  utter  ruin,  as  he  declared ;  come  to  gloat  over  their 
misery  and  to  see  that  it  was  surely  accomplished,  some  of 
the  unhappy  English  were  ready  to  believe.  Yet  his  presence 
was  something  that  seemed  to  give  a  hope  of  protection. 
Akbar  Khan  at  length  startled  the  English  by  a  proposal  that 
the  women  and  children  who  were  with  the  army  should  be 
handed  over  to  his  custody  to  be  conveyed  by  him  in  safety  to 
Peshawur.  There  was  nothing  better  to  be  done.  The 
women  and  children  and  the  married  men  whose  wives  were 
among  this  party  were  taken  from  the  unfortunate  army  and 
placed  under  the  care  of  Akbar  Khan,  and  Lady  Macnaghten 
had  to  undergo  the  agony  of  a  personal  interview  with  the 
man  whose  own  hand  had  killed  her  husband.  Akbar  Khan 
was  kindly  in  his  language,  and  declared  to  the  unhappy  widow 
that  he  would  give  his  rig] it  arm  to  imdo,  if  it  were  possible, 
the  deed  that  he  had  done. 

The  march  was  resumed  ;  new  horrors  set  in  :  new  heaps 


CH.  IV.  THE  AFGHAN  WAR.  S3 

of  corpses  stained  the  snow  ;  and  then  Akbar  Khan  presented 
hhnself  with  a  fresh  proposition.  He  demanded  that  General 
Elphinstone,  the  commander,  with  his  second  in  command, 
and  also  one  other  officer,  should  hand  themselves  over  to 
him  as  hostages.  He  promised  if  this  were  done  to  exert 
himself  more  than  before  to  restrain  the  fanatical  tribes,  and 
also  to  provide  the  army  in  the  Koord  Cabul  Pass  with  pro- 
visions. There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  submit ;  and  the 
English  general  himself  became,  with  the  women  and  childi'en, 
a  captive  in  the  hands  of  the  inexorable  enemy. 

Then  the  march  of  the  army,  without  a  general,  went  on 
again.  Soon  it  became  the  story  of  a  general  without  an 
army ;  before  ver}?'  long  there  was  neither  general  nor  army. 
It  is  idle  to  lengthen  a  tale  of  mere  horrors.  *The  straggling 
remnant  of  an  army  entered  the  JugduUuk  Pass — a  dark, 
steep,  narrow,  ascending  path  between  crags.  The  miserable 
toilers  found  that  the  fanatical,  implacable  tribes  had  barricaded 
the  pass.  All  was  over.  The  army  of  Cabul  was  finally  ex- 
tinguished in  that  barricaded  pass.  It  was  a  trap  ;  the  British 
were  taken  in  it.  A  few  mere  fugitives  escaped  irom  the 
Bcene  of  actual  slaughter,  and  were  on  the  road  to  Jellalabad, 
where  Sale  and  his  little  army  were  holding  their  own.  "When 
they  were  within  sixteen  miles  of  Jellalabad  the  number  was 
reduced  to  six.  Of  these  six,  five  were  killed  by  straggling 
marauders  on  the  way.  One  man  alone  reached  Jellalabad 
to  tell  the  talc.  Literally  one  man.  Dr.  Brydon,  came  to 
Jellalabad  out  of  a  moving  host  wdiich  had  numbered  in  all 
some  sixteen  thousand  when  it  set  out  on  its  march.  The 
curious  eye  will  search  through  history  or  fiction  in  vain  for 
any  picture  more  thrilling  with  the  suggestions  of  an  awful 
catastrophe  than  that  of  this  solitary  survivor,  faint  and  reeling 
on  his  jaded  horse,  as  he  appeared  mider  the  w^alls  of  Jellala- 
bad, to  bear  the  tidings  of  our  Thermopyl^  of  pain  and  shame. 

This  is  the  crisis  of  the  story.  The  rest  is  all  recovery.  The 
garrison  at  Jellalabad  had  received  before  Dr.  Brydon's  arrival 
an  intimation  that  they  were  to  go  out  and  march  towards  India 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  treaty  extorted  from  Elphin- 
stone at  Cabul.  They  very  properly  declined  to  be  bound  by  a 
treaty  which,  as  General  Sale  rightly  conjectured,  had  been 
*  iorced  from  our  envoy  and  military  comma^nder  with  the  knives 
at  their  throats.'  General  Sale's  determination  was  clear  and 
simple.  '  I  propose  to  hold  this  place  on  the  part  of  Government 
until  I  receive  its  order  to  the  contrary.'    This  resolve  ol  Sale's 


54  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  iv. 

was  really  the  turning  point  of  the  history.  Akbar  Khan  besieged 
Jellalabad.  The  garrison  held  out  fearlessly ;  they  resisted 
every  attempt  of  Akbar  Khan  to  advance  upon  their  works, 
and  at  length,  when  it  became  certain  that  General  Pollock 
was  forcing  the  Khyber  Pass  to  come  to  their  relief,  they  issued 
boldly  out  of  their  forts,  forced  a  battle  on  the  Afghan  chief, 
and  completely  defeated  him.  Before  Pollock,  having  gallantly 
fought  his  way  through  the  Khyber  Pass,  had  reached  Jellala- 
bad, the  beleaguering  army  had  been  entirely  defeated  and  dis- 
persed. General  Nott  at  Candahar  was  ready  now  to  co- 
operate with  General  Sale  and  General  Pollock  for  any  move- 
ment on  Cabul  which  the  authorities  might  advise  or  sanction. 
Meanwhile  the  unfortunate  Shah  Soojali,  whom  w^e  had  re- 
stored with  so  much  pomp  of  announcement  to  the  throne  of 
his  ancestors,  was  dead.  He  was  assassinated  in  Cabul,  soon 
after  the  departure  of  the  British,  by  the  orders  of  some  of 
the  chiefs  who  detested  him ;  and  his  body,  stripped  of  its 
royal  robes  and  its  many  jewels,  was  flung  into  a  ditch.  All 
Shah  Soojahowedto  us  was  a  few  weeks  of  idle  pomp  and  absurd 
dreams,  a  bitter  awakening  and  a  shameful  death. 

During  this  time  a  new  Governor- General  had  arrived  in 
Lidia.  Lord  Auckland's  time  had  run  out,  and  during  its 
latter  months  he  had  become  nerveless  and  despondent  because 
of  the  utter  failure  of  the  policy  which  in  an  evil  hour  for 
himself  and  his  country  he  had  been  induced  to  undertake. 
He  was  an  honourable,  kindly  gentleman,  and  the  news  of 
all  the  successive  calamities  fell  upon  him  with  a  crushing, 
an  overwhelming  weight.  He  seemed  to  have  no  other  idea 
than  that  of  getting  all  our  troops  as  quickly  as  might  be  out  of 
Afghanistan,  and  shaking  the  dust  of  the  place  oft"  our  feet  for 
ever.     He  was,  in  fact,  a  broken  man. 

His  successor  was  Lord  Ellenborough.  He  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  affairs  of  India.  He  had  come  into  office 
under  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  resignation  of  the  Melbourne 
Ministry.  He  was  looked  upon  as  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
energy.  It  was  known  that  his  personal  predilections  were  for 
the  career  of  a  soldier.  He  was  fond  of  telling  his  hearers 
then  and  since  that  the  life  of  a  camp  w^as  that  which  ho 
should  have  loved  to  lead.  He  'svas  a  man  of  great  and,  in 
certain  lights,  apparently  splendid  abilities.  There  was  a  cer- 
tain Orientalism  about  his  language,  his  aspirations  and  his 
policy.  He  loved  gorgeousness  and  dramatic — ill-natured 
persons   said  theatric — effects.      Life  arranged  itself  in  his 


en.  IV.  Tff£  AFGHAISr  WAR,  ■  55 

eyes  as  a  superb  and  showy  pageant  of  which  it  would  have 
been  his  ambition  to  form  the  central  figure.  His  eloquence 
was  often  of  a  lofty  and  noble  order.  But  if  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  was  in  some  respects  a  man  of  genius,  he  was  also  a 
man  whose  love  of  mere  effects  often  made  him  seem  like  a 
quack.  He  was  a  man  of  great  abilities  and  earnestness,  who 
had  in  him  a  strong  dash  of  the  play-actor,  who  at  the  most 
serious  moment  of  emergency  always  thought  of  how  to  dis- 
play himself  effectively,  and  would  have  met  the  peril  of  an 
empire  with  an  overmastering  desire  to  show  to  the  best  per- 
sonal advantage. 

Lord  Ellenborough's  appointment  was  hailed  by  all  parties 
in  Lidia  as  the  most  auspicious  that  could  be  made.  But 
those  who  thought  in  this  way  found  themselves  suddenly 
disappointed.  Lord  Ellenborough  uttered  and  wrote  a  few 
showy  sentences  about  revenging  our  losses  and  *  re-establish- 
ing in  all  its  original  brilliancy  our  military  character,'  and 
then  at  once  he  announced  that  the  only  object  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  get  the  troops  out  of  Afghanistan  as  quickly  as 
might  be,  and  almost  on  any  terms.  A  general  outcry  was 
raised  in  Lidia  and  among  the  troops  in  Afghanistan  against 
the  extraordinary  policy  which  Lord  Ellenborough  propounded. 
Englishmen,  in  fact,  refused  to  believe  in  it ;  took  it  as  some- 
thing that  must  be  put  aside.  The  Governor- General  himself 
after  a  while  quietly  put  it  aside.  He  allowed  the  military 
commanders  in  Afghanistan  to  pull  their  resources  together 
and  prepare  for  inflicting  signal  chastisement  on  the  enemy. 
They  were  not  long  in  doing  this.  They  encountered  the  enemy 
w^herever  he  showed  himself  and  defeated  him.  They  recap- 
tured town  after  town,  until  at  length,  on  September  15, 1842, 
General  Pollock's  force  entered  Cabul.  A  few  days  after,  as  a 
lasting  mark  of  retribution  for  the  crimes  which  had  been 
committed  there,  the  British  commander  ordered  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  great  bazaar  of  Cabul,  v/here  the  mangled  remains 
of  the  unfortunate  envoy  Macnaghten  had  been  exhibited  m 
brutal  triumph  and  joy  to  the  Afghan  populace. 

The  captives,  or  hostages,  who  were  hurried  away  that 
terrible  January  night  at  the  command  of  Akbar  Khan  had 
yet  to  be  recovered.  There  was  a  British  general  who  was 
disposed  to  leave  them  to  their  fate  and  take  no  trouble  about 
them,  and  who  declared  himself  under  the  conviction,  from 
the  tenor  of  all  Lord  Ellenborough's  despatches,  that  the 
recovery  of  the  prisoners  was  '  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the 


56  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.       ch.  iv. 

Government.'  Better  counsels  however  prevailed.  General 
Pollock  insisted  on  an  effort  being  made  to  recover  the 
prisoners  before  the  troops  began  to  return  to  India,  and  he 
appointed  to  this  noble  duty  the  husband  of  one  of  the  hostage 
ladies— Sir  Eobert  Sale.  The  prisoners  were  recovered  with 
greater  ease  than  was  expected — so  many  of  them  as  were 
yet  alive.  Poor  General  Elphinstone  had  long  before  suc- 
cumbed to  disease  and  hardship.  The  ladies  had  gone  through 
strange  privations.  They  suffered  almost  every  fierce  alterna- 
tion of  cold  and  heat.  They  had  to  live  on  the  coarsest  fare  ; 
they  were  lodged  in  a  manner  which  would  have  made  the 
most  wretched  prison  accommodation  of  a  civilised  country 
seem  luxurious  by  comparison  ;  they  Avere  in  constant  uncer- 
tainty and  fear,  not  knowing  what  might  befall.  Yet  they 
seem  to  have  held  up  their  courage  and  spirits  wonderfully 
well,  and  to  have  kept  the  hearts  of  the  children  alive,  with 
mirth  and  sport  at  moments  of  the  utmost  peril.  They  were 
carried  off  to  the  wild  rugged  regions  of  the  Indian  Caucasus, 
under  the  charge  of  one  of  Akbar  Khan's  soldiers  of  fortune. 
This  man  had  begun  to  suspect  that  things  were  well-nigh 
hopeless  with  Akbar  Khan.  He  was  induced  to  enter  into  an 
agreement  with  the  prisoners  securing  him  a  large  reward, 
and  a  pension  for  life,  if  he  enabled  them  to  escape.  He  ac- 
cordingly declared  that  he  renounced  his  allegiance  to  Akbar 
Khan ;  all  the  more  readily,  seeing  that  news  came  in  of  the 
chief's  total  defeat  and  flight,  no  one  knew  whither.  The 
prisoners  and  their  escort,  lately  their  gaoler  and  guards,  set 
forth  on  their  way  to  General  Pollock's  camp.  On  their  way 
they  met  the  English  parties  sent  out  to  seek  for  them. 

There  is  a  very  different  ending  to  the  episode  of  the 
English  captives  in  Bokhara.  Colonel  Stoddart,  who  had  been 
sent  to  the  Persian  camp  in  the  beginning  of  all  these  events 
to  insist  that  Persia  must  desist  from  the  siege  of  Herat,  was 
sent  subsequently  on  a  mission  to  the  Ameer  of  Bokhara. 
The  Ameer  threw  Stoddart  into  prison.  Captain  Conolly  un- 
dertook to  endeavour  to  effect  the  liberation  of  Stoddart,  but 
could  only  succeed  in  sharing  his  sufferings,  and  at  last  his  fate. 
Nothing  was  done  to  obtain  their  release  beyond  diplomatic 
efforts,  and  appeals  to  the  magnanimity  of  the  Ameer  which 
had  not  any  particular  effect.  Dr.  Wolff,  the  celebrated  traveller 
and  missionary,  afterwards  undertook  an  expedition  of  his  own 
in  the  hope  of  saving  the  unfortunate  captives  ;  but  he  only 
reached  Bokhara  in  time  to  hear  that  they  had  been  put  to  death. 


CH.  V.  PEEVS  ADMINISTRATIOy.  57 

The  moment  and  actual  manner  of  tlieir  death  cannot  be 
known  to  positive  certainty,  but  there  is  Httle  doubt  they  were 
executed  on  the  same  day  by  the  orders  of  the  Ameer. 

On  October  1,  1842,  exactly  four  years  since  Lord  Auck- 
land's proclamation  announcing  and  justifying  the  intervention 
to  restore  Shah  Soojah,  Lord  Ellenborough  iscued  another 
proclamation  announcing  the  complete  failure  and  the  revoca- 
tion of  the  policy  of  his  predecessor.  Lord  Ellenborough 
declared  that  '  to  force  a  sovereign  upon  a  reluctant  people 
would  be  as  inconsistent  with  the  policy  as  it  is  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  British  Government ; '  that  therefore  they  would 
recognise  any  Government  approved  by  the  Afghans  themselves ; 
that  the  British  arms  would  be  withdrawn  from  Afghan- 
istan, and  that  the  Government  of  India  w^ould  remain  '  con- 
tent with  the  limit  nature  appears  to  have  assigned  to  its 
empire.'  Dost  Mahomed  was  released  from  his  captivity,  and 
before  long  was  ruler  of  Cabul  once  again.  Thus  ended  the' 
story  of  our  expedition  to  reorganise  the  internal  condition  of 
Afghanistan. 


CHAPTER  V. 

peel's  administration. 

•  The  year  1843,'  said  O'Connell,  *  is  and  shall  be  the  great 
Eepeal  year.'  In  the  year  1843,  at  all  events,  O'Connell  wa3 
by  far  the  most  prominent  politician  in  these  countries  who 
had  never  been  in  ofiice.  O'Connell  was  a  thorough  Celt. 
He  represented  all  the  impulsiveness,  the  quick-changing 
emotions,  the  passionate,  exaggerated  loves  and  hatreds,  the 
heedlessness  of  statement,  the  tendency  to  confound  impres- 
sions with  facts,  the  ebullient  humour — all  the  other  qualities 
that  pre  especially  characteristic  of  the  Celt.  As  the  orator 
of  a  popular  assembly,  as  the  orator  of  a  monster  meeting,  he 
probably  never  had  an  equal  in  these  countries.  He  had 
many  of  the  physical  endowments  that  are  especially  favour- 
able to  success  in  such  a  sphere.  He  had  a  herculean  frame, 
a  stately  presence,  a  face  capable  of  expressing  easily  and 
effectively  the  most  rapid  alternations  of  mood,  and  a  voice 
which  all  hearers  admit  to  have  been  almost  unrivalled  for 
strength  and  sweetness.  Its  power,  its  pathos,  its  passion,  its 
music  have  been  described  in  words  of  positive  rapture  by 
3" 


58  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.        cil.  V. 

men  who  detested  O'Connell,  and  who  would  rather  if  they 
could  have  denied  to  him  any  claim  on  public  attention,  even 
in  the  matter  of  voice.  He  spoke  without  studied  preparation, 
and  of  course  had  all  the  defects  of  such  a  style.  He  fell 
into  repetition  and  into  carelessness  of  construction  ;  he  was 
hurried  away  into  exaggeration  and  sometimes  into  mere 
bombast.  But  he  had  all  the  peculiar  success,  too,  which 
rewards  the  orator  who  can  speak  without  preparation.  He 
alv/ays  spoke  right  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  He  entered, 
the  House  of  Commons  when  he  vras  nearly  fifty-four  years  of 
age.  Most  persons  supposed  that  the  style  of  speaking  he 
had  formed,  first  in  addressing  juries,  and  next  in  rousing 
Irish  mobs,  must  cause  his  failure  when  he  came  to  appeal  to 
the  unsympathetic  and  fastidious  House  of  Commons.  But 
it  is  certain  that  O'Connell  became  one  of  the  most  successful 
Parliamentary  orators  of  his  time. 

He  had  borne  the  leading  part  in  carrying  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation. It  must  in  a  short  time  have  been  carried  if 
O'Connell  had  never  lived.  But  it  was  carried  just  then  by 
virtue  of  O'Connell's  bold  agitation.  O'Connell  and  the  Irish 
people  saw  that  Catholic  Emancipation  had  been  yielded  to 
pressure  rather  than  to  justice  ;  it  is  not  wonderful  if  they 
thought  that  pressure  might  prevail  as  well  in  the  matter  of 
Eepeal.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  O'Connell 
himself  believed  in  the  possibility  of  accomplishing  his  purpose. 
We  are  apt  now  to  think  of  the  Union  between  England  and 
Ireland  as  of  time-honoured  endurance.  It  had  been  scarcely 
thirty  years  ir.  existence  when  O'Connell  entered  Parlia- 
ment. To  O'Connell  it  appeared  simply  as  a  modern  innova- 
tion which  had  nothing  to  be  said  for  it  except  that  a  majority 
of  Englishmen  had  by  threats  and  bribery  forced  it  on  a 
majority  of  Irishmen.  He  perceived  the  possibility  of  forming 
a  powerful  party  in  Parliament,  which  would  be  free  to  co- 
operate with  all  English  parties  without  coalescing  with  any, 
and  might  thus  turn  the  balance  of  factions  and  decide  the 
fate  of  Ministries.  He  believed  that  under  a  constitutional 
Government  the  will  of  four-fifths  of  a  nation,  if  peacefully, 
perseveringly  and  energetically  expressed,  must  sooner  or 
later  be  triumphant. 

In  many  respects  O'Connell  differed  from  more  modern 
Irish  Nationalists.  He  was  a  thorough  Liberal.  He  was  a 
devoted  opponent  of  negro  slavery ;  he  was  a  staunch  Free 
Trader ;  he  was  a  friend  of  popular  education ;  he  was  an 


CH.  V.  FEEDS  ADMINISTRATION.  59 

enemy  to  all  excess ;  he  was  opposed  to  strikes ;  he  was  an 
advocate  of  religious  equality  everywhere.  He  preached  the 
doctrine  of  constitutional  agitation  strictly,  and  declared  tha.t 
no  political  Eeform  was  w^orth  the  shedding  of  one  di'op  of 
blood.  It  may  be  asked  how  it  came  about  that  with  all  these 
excellent  attributes,  which  all  critics  now  allow  to  him, 
O'Connell  was  so  detested  by  the  vast  majority  of  the  English 
people.  One  reason  undoubtedly  is  that  O'Connell  delibe- 
rately revived  and  worked  up  for  his  political  purposes  the 
almost  extinct  national  hatreds  of  Celt  and  Saxon.  As  a 
phrase  of  political  controversy,  he  may  be  said  to  have 
invented  the  word  *  Saxon.'  In  the  common  opinion  of 
Englishmen,  all  the  evils  of  Ireland,  all  the  troubles  attach- 
ing to  the  connection  between  the  two  countries,  had  arisen 
from  this  unmitigated,  rankling  hatred  of  Celt  for  Saxon. 
Yet  O'Connell  was  in  no  sense  a  revolutionist.  Of  the  Irish 
rebels  of  '98  he  spoke  w4th  as  savage  an  intolerance  as  the 
narrowest  English  Tories  could  show  in  speaking  of  himself. 
The  Tones,  and  Emmets,  and  Fitzgeralds,  whom  so  many  of 
the  Irish  people  adored,  were  in  O'Connell's  eyes,  and  in  his 
words,  only  '  a  gang  of  miscreants.'  His  theory  and  his 
policy  were  that  Ireland  was  to  be  saved  by  a  dictatorship 
entrusted  to  himself. 

He  had  a  Parliamentary  system  by  means  of  which  he 
proposed  to  approach  more  directly  the  question  of  Eepeal  of 
the  Union.  He  got  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  a 
number  of  his  sons,  his  nephews,  and  his  sworn  retainers. 
He  had  an  almost  supreme  control  over  the  Irish  consti- 
tuencies, and  whenever  a  vacancy  took  place  he  sent  down 
a  Repeal  candidate  to  contest  it.  He  always  inculcated  and 
insisted  on  the  necessity  of  order  and  peace.  Indeed,  as  he 
proposed  to  carry  on  his  agitation  altogether  by  the  help  of 
the  bishops  and  the  priests,  it  was  not  possible  for  him,  even 
were  he  so  inclined,  to  conduct  it  on  any  other  than  peaceful 
principles.  '  The  man  who  commits  a  crime  gives  strength 
to  the  enemy,'  w^as  a  maxim  which  he  was  never  weary  of 
impressing  upon  his  followers.  The  Temperance  movement 
set  on  foot  with  such  remarkable  and  sudden  success  by 
Father  Mathew  was  at  once  turned  to  account  by  O'Connell. 
He  called  upon  his  follo^vers  to  join  it,  and  was  always  boast- 
ing of  his  '  noble  army  of  Teetotalers.'  He  started  that 
system  of  agitation  by  monster  meeting  which  has  since  his 
time  been   regularly   established   among   us   as  a   principal 


6o  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.        ch.  v. 

part  of  all  political  organisation  for  a  definite  purpose. 
He  founded  in  Dublin  a  Eepeal  Association  which  met 
on  Burgh  Quay,  in  a  place  which  he  styled  Conciliation 
Hall.  The  famous  monster  meetings  were  usually  held  on  a 
Sunday,  on  some  open  spot,  mostly  selected  for  its  historic 
fame,  and  with  all  the  picturesque  surroundings  of  hill  and 
stream.  From  the  dawn  of  the  summer  day  the  Eepealers 
were  thronging  to  the  scene  of  the  meeting.  They  came 
from  all  parts  of  the  neighbouring  country  for  miles  and 
miles.  They  were  commonly  marshalled  and  guided  by  their 
parish  priests.  They  all  attended  the  services  of  their  Church 
before  the  meeting  began. 

O'Connell  himself,  it  is  needless  to  cay,  was  always  the 
great  orator  of  the  day.  His  magnificent  voice  enabled  him 
to  do  what  no  genius  and  no  eloquence  less  aptly  endowed 
could  have  done.  He  could  send  his  liglitest  word  thrilling 
to  the  extreme  of  the  vast  concourse  of  people  whom  ho 
desired  to  move.  He  swayed  them  with  the  magic  of  an 
absolute  control.  He  understood  all  the  moods  of  his  people ; 
to  address  himself  to  them  came  naturally  to  him.  He  made 
them  roar  with  laughter  ;  he  made  them  weep  ;  he  made 
them  thrill  wdth  indignation.  As  the  shadow  runs  over  a 
field,  so  the  impression  of  Jiis  varying  eloquence  ran  over  the 
assemblage.  He  commanded  the  emotions  of  his  hearers  as 
a  consummate  conductor  sways  the  energies  of  his  orchestra. 

The  crowds  who  attended  the  monster  meetings  came  in  a 
sort  of  military  order  and  with  a  certain  parade  of  military 
discipline.  At  the  meeting  held  on  the  Hill  of  Tara,  where 
O'Connell  stood  beside  the  stone  said  to  have  been  used  for 
the  coronation  of  the  ancient  monarchs  of  Ireland,  it  is 
declared  on  the  authority  of  careful  and  unsympathetic  wit- 
nesses that  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  people  must  have  been 
present.  The  Government  naturally  felt  that  tliere  was  a  very 
considerable  danger  in  the  massing  together  of  such  vast 
crowds  of  men  in  something  like  military  array  and  under  the 
absolute  leadership  of  one  man,  who  02:)enly  avowed  that  he  had 
called  them  together  to  show  England  what  was  the  strength 
her  statesmen  would  have  to  fear  if  they  continued  to  deny 
Eepeal  to  his  demand.  The  Government  at  last  resolved  to 
interfere.  A  meeting  was  announced  to  be  held  at  Clonlarf 
on  Sunday,  October  8,  1843.  Clontarf  is  near  Dublin,  and  is 
famous  in  Irish  liistory  as  the  scene  of  a  great  victory  of  tlie 
Irish  over  their  Danish  invaders.     It  was  intended  that  this 


CH.  V.  PEEVS  ADMINISTRATION'.  61 

meeting  sliould  surpass  in  numbers  and  in  earnestness  the 
assemblage  at  Tara.  On  the  very  day  before  the  8th  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  issued  a  proclamation  prohibiting  the  meeting  as 
*  calculated  to  excite  reasonable  and  well-grounded  apprehen- 
sion '  in  that  its  object  was  '  to  accomplish  alterations  in  the 
laws  and  constitution  of  the  realm  by  intimidation  and  the 
demonstration  of  physical  force.'  O'Connell's  power  over  the 
people  was  never  slit)wn  more  effectively  than  in  the  control 
which  at  that  critical  moment  he  was  still  able  to  exercise. 
O'Connell  declared  that  the  orders  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
must  be  obeyed  ;  that  the  meeting  must  not  take  place  ;  and 
that  the  people  must  return  to  their  homes.  The  '  uncrowned 
king,'  as  some  of  his  admirers  loved  to  call  him,  was  obeyed, 
and  no  meeting  was  held. 

From  that  moment,  however,  the  great  power  of  the  Eepcal 
agitation  was  gone.  It  was  now  made  clear  that  he  did  not 
intend  to  have  resort  to  force.  The  young  and  fiery  followers 
of  the  great  agitator  renounced  all  faith  in  him.  All  the 
imposing  demonstrations  of  physical  strength  lost  their  value 
when  it  was  made  positi\'ely  known  that  they  were  only 
demonstrations,  and  that  nothing  was  ever  to  come  of  them. 

The  Government  at  once  proceeded  to  the  prosecution  of 
O'Connell  and  some  of  his  principal  associates.  They  were 
charged  with  conspiring  to  raise  and  excite  disaffection  among 
her  Majesty's  subjects,  to  excite  them  to  hatred  and  contempt 
of  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  the  realm.  The  jury 
found  O'Connell  guilty  along  with  most  of  his  associates,  and 
he  was  sentenced  to  twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  a  fine 
ol  2,000Z.  The  others  received  Hghter  sentences.  O'Connell 
appealed  to  the  House  of  Lords  against  the  sentence.  In  the 
meantime  he  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  Irish  people  com- 
manding them  to  keep  perfectly  quiet  and  not  to  commit  any 
offence  against  the  law.  '  Every  man,'  said  one  of  his  pro- 
clamations, '  who  is  guilty  of  the  slightest  breach  of  the  peace 
is  an  enemy  of  me  and  of  Ireland.'  The  Irish  people  took 
him  at  his  word  and  remained  perfectly  quiet. 

O'Connell  and  his  principal  associates  were  committed  to 
Eichmond  Prison,  in  Dublin.  The  trial  had  been  delayed  in 
various  ways,  and  the  sentence  w^as  not  pronounced  until  May 
24,  1844.  The  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords  was  heard  in 
the  following  September,  the  judgment  was  reversed,  and 
O'Connell  and  his  associates  wxre  set  at  liberty.  There  was  all 
manner  ot  national  rejoicing  when  the  decision  of  the  House 


62  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  v. 

of  Lords  set  O'Connell  and  his  fbllow-prisoncrs  free.  There 
were  illummations  and  banquets  and  meetings  and  triumphal 
processions,  renewed  declarations  of  allegiance  to  the  great 
leader,  and  renewed  protestations  on  his  part  that  Kepeal  was 
coming.  But  his  reign  was  over.  His  health  broke  down 
more  and  more  every  day.  He  became  seized  with  a  ^Drofound 
melancholy.  Only  o]ie  desire  seemed  left  to  him,  the  desire 
to  close  his  stormy  career  in  Eome.  He  longed  to  lie  down 
in  the  shadow  of  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  and  rest  there,  and 
there  die.  His  youth  had  been  wild  in  more  ways  than  one, 
and  he  had  long  been  under  the  influence  of  a  profound 
penitence.  He  had  killed  a  man  in  a  duel,  and  was  through 
all  his  after  life  haunted  by  regret  for  the  deed,  although  it 
was  really  forced  on  him,  and  he  had  acted  only  as  any  otlier 
man  of  his  time  would  have  acted  in  such  conditions.  But 
now  in  his  old  and  sinking  days  all  the  errors  of  his  youth  and 
his  strong  manhood  came  back  upon  him,  and  he  longed  to 
steep  the  painful  memories  in  the  sacred  influences  of  Rome. 
He  hurried  to  Italy.  He  reached  Genoa.  His  strength 
wholly  failed  him  there,  and  he  died,  still  far  from  Rome,  on 
May  15,  1847. 

Some  important  steps  in  the  progress  of  what  may  be  de- 
scribed as  social  legislation  are  part  of  the  history  of  Peel's 
Government.  The  Act  of  Parliament  which  prohibited  abso- 
lutely the  employment  of  women  and  girls  in  mines  and 
collieries  was  rendered  unavoidable  by  the  fearful  exposures 
made  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  Commission  appointed 
to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject.  This  Commission  was 
appointed  on  the  motion  of  the  then  Lord  Ashley,  since 
better  known  as  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  a  man  who  during 
the  whole  of  a  long  career  has  always  devoted  himself  to  the 
task  of  brightening  the  lives  and  lightening  the  burthens  of 
the  working  classes  and  the  poor.  In  some  of  the  coal  mines 
women  were  literally  employed  as  beasts  of  burden.  Lord 
Ashley  had  the  happiness  and  the  honour  of  putting  a  stop  to 
this  infamous  sort  of  labour  for  ever  by  the  Act  of  1812,  which 
declared  that,  after  a  certain  limited  period,  no  woman  or 
girl  whatever  should  be  employed  in  mines  and  collieries. 

Lord  Ashley  was  less  completely  successful  in  his  endea- 
vour to  secure  a  ten  hours'  limitation  for  the  daily  labour  of 
women  and  young  persons  in  factories.  By  a  vigorous  annual 
agitation  on  the  general  subject  of  factory  labour,  he  brought 
the  Government  up  to  the  point  of  undertaking  legislation  on 


CH.  V.  PEELS  ADMINISTRATION.  63 

the  subject.  They  first  introduced  a  bill  which  combined  a 
limitation  of  the  labour  of  children  in  factories  with  a  plan  for 
compulsory  education  among  the  children.  Afterwards  the 
Government  brought  in  another  bill,  which  became  in  the  end 
the  Factories  Act  of  1844.  It  was  during  the  passing  of  this 
measure  that  Lord  Ashley  tried  unsuccessfully  to  introduce 
his  ten  hours'  limit.  The  bill  diminished  the  working  hours 
of  children  under  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  fixed  them  at  six 
and  a  half  hours  each  day  ;  extended  somewhat  the  time 
during  which  they  were  to  be  under  daily  instruction,  and  did 
a  good  many  other  useful  and  wholesome  things.  The  prin- 
ciple of  legislative  interference  to  protect  youthful  workers  in 
factories  had  been  already  established  by  the  Act  of  1833  ;  and 
Lord  Ashley's  agitation  only  obtained  for  it  a  somewhat  ex- 
tended application.  It  has  since  that  time  again  and  again 
received  further  extension. 

Many  other  things  done  by  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Government 
aroused  bitter  controversy  and  agitation.  There  was,  for  ex- 
ample, the  grant  to  the  Roman  Catholic  College  of  Maynooth, 
a  college  for  the  education  specially  of  young  men  who  sought 
to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  priesthood.  The  grant  was  not  a  new 
thing.  Since  before  the  Act  of  Union  a  grant  had  been  made 
for  the  college.  The  Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  only  pro- 
posed to  make  that  which  was  insufficient  sufficient ;  to  enable 
the  college  to  be  kept  in  repair  and  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  founded.  Yet  the  Ministerial  proposition 
called  up  a  very  tempest  of  clamorous  bigotry  all  over  the 
country.  Peel  carried  his  measure,  although  nearly  half  his 
own  party  in  the  House  of  Commons  voted  against  it  on  the 
second  reading. 

There  was  objection  within  the  Ministry,  as  well  as  without, 
to  the  Maynooth  grant.  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  had  been  doing 
admirable  work,  first  as  Vice-President,  and  afterwards  as 
President,  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  resigned  his  office  because  of 
this  proposal.  He  acted,  perhaps,  wuth  a  too  sensitive  chivalry. 
He  had  written  a  work  on  the  relations  of  Church  and  State, 
and  he  did  not  think  the  view^s  expressed  in  that  book  left  him 
free  to  co-operate  in  the  Ministerial  measure.  Some  staid 
politicians  w^ere  shocked,  many  smiled,  not  a  few  sneered. 
The  public  in  general  applauded  the  spirit  of  disinterestedness 
which  dictated  the  young  statesman's  act. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  however,  supported  by  voice  and  vote  the 
Queen's  Colleges  scheme,  another  of  Peel's  measures  which 


64  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.        CH.  v. 

aroused  much  clamour.  The  proposal  of  the  G  overnment  was 
to  establish  m  Ireland  three  colleges,  one  m  Cork,  the  second 
in  Belfast,  and  the  third  in  Galway,  and  to  affiliate  these  to  a 
new  university  to  be  called  the  '  Queen's  University  in  Ireland.* 
The  teaching  in  these  colleges  was  to  be  purely  secular.  No- 
thing could  be  more  admirable  than  the  intentions  of  Peel  and 
his  colleagues.  Peel  carried  his  measure  ;  but  from  both  sides 
of  the  House  and  from  the  ex^-remej^arty  in  each  Church  came 
iin  equally  vigorous  denunciation  of  the  proposal  to  separate 
secular  from  religious  education. 

One  small  instalment  of  justice  to  a  much  injured  and  long 
suffering  religious  body  was  accomplished  without  any  trouble 
by  Sir  Eobert  Peel's  Government.  This  was  the  bill  for  re- 
moving the  test  Dy  winch  Jews  were  excluded  from  certain 
municipal  offices.  A  Jew  might  be  high  sheriff  of  a  county, 
or  Sheriff  of  London,  but,  with  an  inconsistency  which  was 
as  ridiculous  as  it  was  narrow-minded,  he  was  prevented  from 
becoming  a  mayor,  an  alderman,  or  even  a  member  of  the 
Common  Council.  The  oath  which  had  to  be  taken  included 
the  words, '  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian.'  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  introduced  a  measure  to  get  rid  of  this 
absurd  anomaly  ;  and  the  House  of  Lords,  which  had  firmly  re- 
jected similar  proposals  of  relief  before,  passed  it  without  any 
difficulty.  It  was  of  course  passed  by  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  had  done  its  best  to  introduce  the  reform  in  previous 
sessions,  and  without  success. 

The  Bank  Charter  Act,  separating  the  issue  from  the  bank- 
ing department  of  the  Bank  of  England,  limiting  the  issue  of 
notes  to  a  fixed  amount  of  securities,  requiring  the  whole 
of  the  further  circulation  to  be  on  a  basis  of  bullion,  and  pro- 
hibiting the  formation  of  any  new  banks  of  issue,  is  a  charac- 
teristic and  an  important  measure  of  Peel's  Government.  To 
Peel,  too,  we  owe  the  establishment  of  the  income  tax  on  its 
present  basis — a  doubtful  boon.  The  copyright  question  was 
at  least  advanced  a  stage.  Railways  were  regulated.  The 
railway  mania  and  railway  panic  also  belong  to  this  active 
period.  The  country  went  wild  with  railway  speculation. 
The  vulgar  and  fiashy  successes  of  one  or  two  lucky  adventurers 
turned  the  heads  of  the  whole  community.  For  a  time  it 
seemed  to  be  a  national  article  of  faith  that  the  capacity  of  the 
country  to  absorb  new  railway  schemes  and  make  them  profit- 
able was  unlimited,  and  that  to  make  a  fortune  one  had  only 
to  take  shares  in  anytliing. 


CH.  V.  PEELS  ADMINISTRATION,  65 

An  odd  feature  of  the  time  was  the  outbreak  of  what  were 
called  the  Rebecca  riots  in  Wales.  These  riots  arose  out  of  the 
anger  and  impatience  of  the  people  at  the  great  increase  of  toll- 
bars  and  tolls  on  the  public  roads.  Some  one,  it  was  supposed, 
had  hit  upon  a  passage  in  Genesis  which  supplied  a  motto  for 
their  grievance  and  their  complaint.  *  And  they  blessed  Re- 
bekah,  and  said  unto  her  ...  let  thy  seed  possess  the  gate  of 
those  which  hate  them.'  They  set  about  accordingly  to  possess 
very  eifectually  the  gates  of  those  which  hated  them.  Mobs, 
led  by  men  in  women's  clothes,  assembled  every  night,  de- 
stroyed turnpikes,  and  dispersed.  Blood  was  shed  in  conflicts 
with  police  and  soldiers.  At  last  the  Government  succeeded 
in  putting  down  the  riots,  and  had  the  wisdom  to  appoint  a 
Commission  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  so  much  disturbance  ; 
and  the  Commission,  as  will  readily  be  imagined,  found  that 
there  were  genuine  grievances  at  the  bottom  of  the  popular 
excitement.  The  farmers  and  the  labourers  were  poor ;  the 
tolls  were  seriously  oppressive.  The  Government  dealt  lightly 
with  most  of  the  rioters  who  had  been  captured,  and  intro- 
duced measures  which  removed  the  most  serious  grievances. 

Sir  James  Graham,  the  Home  Secretary,  brought  himself 
and  the  Government  into  some  trouble  by  authorising  the  Post 
Office  to  open  some  of  the  letters  of  Joseph  Mazzini,  the  Italian 
exile.  The  public  excitement  was  at  first  very  great ;  but  it  soon 
subsided.  The  reports  of  Parliamentary  committees  appointed 
by  the  two  Houses  showed  that  all  Governments  had  exercised 
the  right,  but  naturally  with  decreasing  frequency  and  greater 
caution  of  late  years  ;  and  that  there  was  no  chance  now  of  its 
being  seriously  abused.  One  remark  it  is  right  to  make.  An 
exile  is  sheltered  in  a  country  like  England  on  the  assumption 
that  he  does  not  involve  her  in  responsibility  and  danger  by 
using  her  protection  as  a  shield  behind  which  to  contrive  plots 
and  organise  insurrections  against  foreign  Governments.  It  is 
certain  that  Mazzini  did  make  use  of  the  shelter  England  gave 
him  for  such  a  purpose.  It  would  in  the  end  be  to  the  heavy 
injury  of  all  fugitives  from  despotic  rule  if  to  shelter  them 
brought  such  consequences  on  the  countries  that  offered  them 
a  home. 

The  Peel  Administration  had  wars  of  its  own.  Scinde  was 
annexed  by  Lord  Ellenborough  in  consequence  of  the  disputes 
which  had  arisen  between  us  and  the  Ameers,  whom  we  accused 
of  having  broken  laith  with  us.  Peel  and  his  colleagues  ac- 
cepted the  annexation.    None  of  them  liked  it ;  but  none  saw 


66        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,         CH.  v. 

how  it  could  be  undone.  Later  on  tlie  Sikhs  invaded  our  ter- 
ritory by  crossing  the  Sutlej  in  great  force.  Sir  Hugh  Gough, 
afterwards  Lord  Gough,  fought  several  fierce  battles  with  them 
before  he  could  conquer  them ;  and  even  then  they  were  only 
conquered  for  the  time. 

We  were  at  one  moment  apparently  on  the  very  verge  of 
what  must  have  proved  a  far  more  serious  war  much  nearer  home, 
in  consequence  of  the  dispute  that  arose  between  this  country 
and  France  about  Tahiti  and  Queen  Pomare.     Queen  Pomare 
was  sovereign  of  the  island  of  Tahiti,  in  the  South  Pacific,  the 
Otaheite  of  Captain  Cook.     She  had  been  induced  or  compelled 
to  put  herself  and  her  dominion  under  the  protection  of  France  ; 
a  step  which  was  highly  displeasing  to  her  subjects.     Some  ill- 
feeling  towards  the  French  residents  of  the  island  was  shown ; 
and  the  French  admiral,  who  had  mduced  or  compelled  the 
queen  to  put  herself  under  French  protection,  now  suddenly 
appeared  off  the  coast,  and  called  on  her  to  hoist  the  French 
flag  above  her  own.     She  refused ;  and  he  instantly  effected  a 
landing  on  the  island,  pulled  down  her  flag,  raised  that  of 
France  in  its  place,  and  proclaimed  that  the  island  was  French 
territory.     His  act  was   at   once   disavowed   by  the   French 
Government.     But  Queen  Pomare  had  appealed  to  the  Queen 
of  England  for  assistance.    While  the  more  hot-headed  on  both 
sides  of  the  English  Channel  were  snarling  at  each  other,  the 
difficulty  was  immensely  complicated  by  the  French  command- 
ant's seizure  of  a  missionary  named  Pritchard,  who  had  been 
our  consul  in  the  island  up  to  the  deposition  of  Pomare.     Prit- 
chard was  flung  into  prison,  and  only  released  to  be  expelled 
from  the  island.     He  came  home  to  England  with  his  story  ; 
and  his  arrival  was  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of  indignation 
all  over  the   country.     In  the  end  the  French  Government 
agreed  to  compensate  Pritchard  for  his  sufferings  and  losses. 
Queen  Pomare  was  nominally  restored  to  power,  but  the  French 
protection  proved  as  stringent  as  if  it  were  a  sovereign  rule. 
She  might  as  well  have  pulled  down  her  flag  for  all  the  sovereign 
right  it  secured  to  her.     She  died  thirty-four  years  after,  and 
her  death  recalled  to  the  memory  of  tlie  English  public  the  long- 
forgotten  fact  she  had  once  so  nearly  been  the  cause  of  a  war 
between  England  and  France. 

The  Ashburton  Treaty  and  the  Oregon  Treaty  belong  alike 
to  the  history  of  Peel's  Administration.  The  Ashburton  Treaty 
bears  date  August  9,  1842,  and  arranges  finally  tlie  north-west- 
ern boundary  between  the  British  Provinces  of  North  America 


CH.  V.  FEEDS  ADMINISTRA  TION,  67 

and  the  United  States.  More  than  once  the  dispute  about  the 
boundary  Hne  in  the  Oregon  region  had  very  nearly  become  an 
occasion  for  war  between  England  and  the  United  States.  On 
June  15,  1846,  the  Oregon  Treaty  settled  the  question  for  that 
time  at  least.  Vancouver's  Island  remained  to  Great  Britian,  and 
the  free  navigation  of  the  Columbia  Eiver  was  secured.  The 
question  came  up  again  for  discussion  in  1871,  and  was  finally 
settled  by  the  arbitration  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 

During  Peel's  time  we  catch  a  last  glimpse  of  the  famous 
Arctic  navigator,  Sir  John  Franklin.  He  sailed  on  the  expe- 
dition which  was  doomed  to  be  his  last,  on  May  2G,  1845,  with 
his  two  vessels,  Erebtis  and  Terror,  Not  much  more  is  heard 
of  him  as  among  the  living. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  ANTI-COEN  LAW  LEAGUE. 

The  famous  Corn  Law  of  1815  was  a  copy  of  the  Com  Law 
of  1670.  The  former  measure  imposed  a  duty  on  the  impor- 
tation of  foreign  grain  which  amounted  to  prohibition. 
Wheat  might  be  exported  upon  the  payment  of  one  shilling 
per  quarter  Customs  duty  ;  but  importation  was  practically 
prohibited  until  the  price  of  wheat  had  reached  eighty 
shillmgs  a  quarter.  The  Corn  Law  of  1815  was  hurried 
through  Parliament,  absolutely  closmg  the  ports  against  the 
importation  of  foreign  grain  until  the  price  of  our  home- 
grown grain  had  reached  the  magic  figure  of  eighty  shillings 
a  quarter.  It  was  hurried  through,  despite  the  most  earnest 
petitions  from  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  classes.  A 
great  deal  of  popular  disturbance  attended  the  passing  of  the 
measure.  There  were  riots  in  London,  and  in  many  parts  oi 
the  country.  After  the  Corn  Law  of  1815,  thus  ominously 
mtroduced,  there  were  Sliding  Scale  Acts,  having  for  their  busi- 
ness to  establish  a  varying  system  of  duty,  so  that,  according 
as  the  price  of  home-produced  wheat  rose  to  a  certain  height, 
the  duty  on  imported  wheat  sank  in  proportion.  The 
principle  of  all  these  measures  was  the  same.  It  was 
founded  on  the  assumption  that  the  com  grew  for  the  benefit 
of  the  grower  first  of  all ;  and  that  until  he  had  been  secured 
in  a  handsome  profit  the  pubJjc  at  large  had  no  right  to  any 


68        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.        CH.  vi. 

reduction  in  the  cost  of  food.  When  the  harvest  was  a  good 
one,  and  the  golden  grain  was  plenty,  then  the  soul  of  the 
grower  was  afraid,  and  he  called  out  to  Parliament  to  protect 
him  against  the  calamity  of  having  to  sell  his  corn  any 
cheaper  than  in  years  of  famine.  He  did  not  see  all  the 
time  that  if  the  prosperity  of  the  country  in  general  was 
enhanced,  he  too  must  come  to  benefit  by  it. 

A  movement  against  the  Corn  Laws  began  in  London. 
An  Anti-Corn  Law  Association  on  a  small  scale  was  formed. 
Its  list  of  members  bore  the  names  of  more  than  twenty 
members  of  Parliament,  and  for  a  time  the  society  had  a  look 
of  vigour  about  it.  It  came  to  nothing,  however.  London 
has  never  been  found  an  effeciive  nursery  of  agitation.  It 
Las  hardly  ever  made  or  represented  thoroughly  the  public 
Opinion  of  England  during  any  great  crisis.  A  new  centre  of 
operations  had  to  be  sought,  and  in  the  year  1838  a  meeting 
v/as  held  in  Manchester  to  consider  measures  necessary  to  be 
adopted  for  bringing  about  the  complete  repeal  of  the  obnoxious 
Laws.  The  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce  adopted  a 
petition  to  Parliament  against  the  Corn  Laws.  The  Anti- 
Corn  Law  agitation  had  been  fairly  launched.  From  that 
time  it  grew  and  grew  in  importance  and  strength.  Meetings 
were  held  in  various  towns  of  England  and  Scotland.  Associa- 
tions were  formed  everywhere  to  co-operate  with  the  movement 
•which  had  its  head-quarters  in  Manchester. 

The  nominal  leader  of  the  Free  Trade  party  in  Parliament 
was  for  many  years  Mr.  Charles  Villiers,  a  man  of  aristocratic 
family  and  surroundings,  of  remarkable  ability,  and  of  the 
steadiest  fidelity  to  the  cause  he  had  undertaken.  Mr.  Villiers 
brought  forward  for  several  successive  sessions  in  the 
House  of  Commons  a  motion  in  favour  of  the  total  repeal  of 
the  Corn  Laws.  His  eloquence  and  argumentative  power 
served  the  great  purpose  of  drawing  the  attention  of  the 
country  to  the  wdiole  question,  and  making  converts  to  the 
principle  he  advocated.  But  Mr.  Villiers  might  have  gone  on 
for  all  his  life  dividing  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  question 
of  Free  Trade,  without  getting  much  nearer  his  object,  ii  it 
were  not  for  the  manner  in  which  the  cause  was  taken  up  by 
the  country,  and  more  particularly  by  the  great  manufacturing 
towns  of  the  North.  Until  the  passing  of  Lord  Grey's 
Ptcform  Bill  these  towns  had  no  representation  in  Parliament. 
They  seemed  destined  after  that  event  to  make  up  for  theii- 
long  exclusion  from  representative  infiuence  by  taking  the 


CH.  VI.  THE  ANTI-CORN  LAW  LEAGUE.  69 

government  of  the  country  into  their  own  hands.  Manchester, 
Birmingham,  and  Leeds  are  no  whit  less  important  to  the  hfe 
of  the  nation  now  than  they  were  before  Free  Trade.  But 
their  supremacy  does  not  exist  now  as  it  did  then.  At  that 
time  it  was  town  against  country  ;  Manchester  representing  the 
town,  and  the  whole  Conservative  (at  one  period  almost  the 
w^hole  landowning)  body  representing  the  country.  With  the 
Manchester  school,  as  it  w^as  called,  began  a  new  kind  of 
popular  agitation.  Up  to  that  time  agitation  meant  appeal 
to  passion,  and  lived  by  provoking  passion.  The  Manchester 
school  introduced  the  agitation  which  appealed  to  reason  and 
argument  only ;  wbich  stirred  men's  hearts  with  figures  of 
arithmetic  rather  than  figures  of  speech,  and  which  converted 
mob  meetings  to  political  economy. 

The  real  leader  of  the  movement  was  Mr.  Eichard  Cobden. 
Mr.  Cobden  was  a  man  belonging  to  the  yeoman  class. 
He  had  received  but  a  moderate  education.  His  father 
dying  while  the  great  Free  Trader  was  still  young,  Kichard 
Cobden  was  taken  in  charge  by  an  uncle,  who  had  a  whole- 
sale warehouse  in  the  City  of  London,  and  who  gave  him 
employment  there.  Cobden  afterwards  became  a  partner  in  a 
Manchester  printed  cotton  factory  ;  and  he  travelled  occasion- 
ally on  the  commercial  busmess  of  this  establishment.  He 
had  a  great  likmg  for  travel ;  but  not  by  any  means  as  the 
ordinary  tourist  travels ;  the  interest  of  Cobden  was  not  in 
scenery,  or  in  art,  or  in  ruins,  but  in  men.  He  studied  the 
condition  of  countries  with  a  view^  to  the  manner  in  which  it 
aiiectedthe  men  and  women  of  the  present,  and  through  them 
was  likely  to  afiect  the  future.  On  everything  that  he  saw  he 
turned  a  quick  and  intelligent  eye  ;  and  he  saw  for  himself  and 
thought  for  himself.  Wherever  he  went,  he  wanted  to  learn 
something.  He  had  in  abundance  that  peculiar  faculty  which 
some  great  men  of  widely  different  stamp  from  him  and  from 
each  other  have  possessed,  the  faculty  which  exacts  from 
everyone  with  whom  the  OT\Tier  comes  into  contact  some  con- 
tribution to  his  stock  of  information  and  to  his  advantage. 
Cobden  could  learn  something  from  everybody.  He  travelled 
very  widely,  for  a  time  when  travelling  was  more  difncult  work 
than  it  is  at  present.  He  made  himself  familiar  with  most  of 
the  countries  of  Europe,  with  many  parts  of  the  East,  and  what 
was  then  a  rarer  accomplishment,  with  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  He  studied  these  countries  and  visited  many  of  them 
again  to  compare  early  with  later  impressions.     When  he  was 


70        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,       CH.  VI. 

about  thirty  years  of  age  he  began  to  acquire  a  certain  reputa- 
tion as  the  author  of  pamphlets  directed  against  some  of  the 
pet  doctrines  of  old-fashioned  statesmanship  ;  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe ;  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  State 
Church  in  Ireland  ;  the  importance  of  allowing  no  European 
quarrel  to  go  on  without  England's  intervention  ;  and  similar 
dogmas.  The  tongue,  however,  was  his  best  weapon.  If 
oratory  were  a  business  and  not  an  art — that  is,  if  its  test  were 
its  success  rather  than  its  form — then  it  might  be  contended 
reasonably  enough  that  Mr.  Cobden  w^as  one  of  the  greatest 
orators  England  has  ever  known.  Nothing  could  exceed  the 
persuasiveness  of  his  style.  His  manner  was  simple,  sweet 
and  earnest.  It  was  transparently  sincere.  The  light  of  its 
convictions  shone  all  through  it.  It  aimed  at  the  reason  and 
the  judgment  of  the  listener,  and  seemed  to  be  convincing  him 
to  his  own  interest  against  his  prejudices.  Cobden's  style  was 
almost  exclusively  conversational,  but  he  had  a  clear,  well- 
toned  voice,  with  a  quiet,  unassuming  power  in  it  w^hich 
enabled  him  to  make  his  words  heard  distinctly  and  without 
effort  all  through  the  great  meetings  he  had  often  to  address. 
His  speeches  were  full  of  variety.  He  illustrated  every  argu- 
ment by  something  drawn  from  his  personal  observation  or 
from  reading,  and  his  illustrations  were  always  striking, 
appropriate  and  interesting.  He  had  a  large  amount  of  bright 
and  winning  humour,  and  he  spoke  the  simplest  and  purest 
English.  He  never  used  an  unnecessary  sentence  or  failed  for 
a  single  moment  to  make  his  meaning  clear.  Llany  strong 
opponents  of  Mr.  Cobden's  opinions  confessed  even  during  his 
lifetime  that  they  sometimes  found  with  dismay  their  most 
cherished  convictions  crumbling  away  beneath  his  flow  of  easy 
argument.  In  the  stormy  times  of  national  passion  Mr.  Cob- 
den was  less  powerful.  The  apostle  of  common  sense  and  fair 
dealing,  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  passions  of  men ;  he 
did  not  understand  them ;  they  passed  for  nothing  in  his 
calculations.  His  judgment  of  men  and  of  nations  was  based 
far  too  much  on  his  knowledge  of  his  own  motives  and  cha- 
racter. He  knew  that  in  any  given  case  he  could  always  trust 
himself  to  act  the  part  of  a  just  and  prudent  man ;  and  he 
assumed  that  all  the  world  could  be  governed  by  the  rules  of 
prudence  and  of  equity.  He  cared  little  or  nothing  for  mere 
sentiments.  Even  where  these  had  their  root  in  some  human 
tendency  that  was  noble  in  itself,  he  did  not  reverence  them  if 
they  seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  men's  acting  peacefully 


CH.  VI.  THE  ANTI-CORN  LAW  LEAGUE,  71 

and  prudently.  Thus  he  never  represented  more  than  half 
the  English  character.  He  was  always  out  of  sympathy  with 
his  countrymen  on  some  great  political  question.  But  he 
seemed  as  if  he  were  designed  by  nature  to  conduct  to  such 
success  an  agitation  as  that  against  the  Corn  Laws. 

Mr.  Cobden  found  some  colleagues  who  were  worthy  of  him. 
His  chief  companion  in  the  campaign  was  Mr.  Bright.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  English  public  life  has  ever  produced  a  man 
who  possessed  more  of  the  qualifications  of  a  great  orator  than 
Mr.  Bright.  He  had  a  commanding  presence,  a  massive  figure, 
a  large  head,  a  handsome  and  expressive  face.  His  voice  was 
powerful,  resonant,  clear,  with  a  peculiar  vibration  in  it  which 
leant  unspeakable  effect  to  any  passages  of  pathos  or  of  scorn. 
His  style  of  speaking  was  pure  to  austerity  ;  it  was  stripped 
of  all  superfluous  ornament.  It  never  gushed  or  foamed.  It 
never  allowed  itself  to  be  mastered  by  passion.  The  first 
peculiarity  that  struck  the  listener  was  its  superb  self-restraint. 
The  orator  at  his  most  powerful  passages  appeared  as  if  he 
were  rather  keeping  in  his  strength  than  taxing  it  with  effort. 
His  voice  was  for  the  most  part  calm  and  measured  ;  he  hardly 
ever  indulged  in  much  gesticulation.  He  never,  under  the 
pressure  of  whatever  emotion,  shouted  or  stormed.  The  fire 
of  his  eloquence  was  a  white  heat,  intense,  consuming,  but 
never  sparkling  or  sputtering.  He  had  an  admirable  gift  of 
humour  and  a  keen  ironical  power.  He  had  read  few  books, 
but  of  those  he  read  he  was  a  master.  The  English  Bible  and 
Milton  were  his  chief  studies.  Bright  was  a  man  of  the 
middle  class.  His  family  were  Quakers  of  a  somewhat  austere 
mould.  They  were  manufacturers  of  carpets  in  Eochdale, 
Lancashire,  and  had  made  considerable  money  in  their  business. 

There  was  something  positively  romantic  about  the  mutual 
attachment  of  these  two  men,  who  worked  together  in  the 
closest  brotherhood,  who  loved  each  other  as  not  all  brothers 
do,  who  were  associated  so  closely  in  the  public  mind  that 
until  Cobden's  death  the  name  of  one  was  scarcely  ever  men- 
tioned without  that  of  the  other.  Each  led  a  noble  life  ;  each 
was  m  his  own  vray  a  man  of  genius  ;  each  was  simple 
and  strong.  Rivalry  between  them  would  have  been  impossi- 
ble, although  they  were  every  day  being  compared  and  con- 
trasted by  both  friendly  and  unfriendly  critics.  Their  gifts 
were  admirably  suited  to  make  them  powerful  allies.  Each 
had  something  that  the  other  wanted.  Bright  had  not 
Cobden's  winning  persun.siveness  nor  his  surprismg  ease  and 


72        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  vi. 

force  of  argument.  But  Cobden  had  not  anything  like  his 
companion's  oratorical  power.  He  had  not  the  tones  of 
scorn,  of  pathos,  of  humour,  and  of  passion.  The  two 
together  made  a  genuine  power  in  the  House  of  Commons  and 
on  the  platform. 

These  men  had  many  assistants  and  lieutenants  well 
worthy  to  act  with  them  and  under  them,  such  as  Mr.  W.  J. 
Fox,  for  instance,  a  Unitarian  minister  of  great  popularity  and 
remarkable  eloquence,  and  Mr.  Milner  Gibson,  w4io  had  been 
a  Tory. 

The  League,  however  successful  as  it  might  be  throughout 
the  country,  had  its  great  work  to  do  in  Parliament.  Even 
after  the  change  made  in  favour  of  manufacturing  and  middle 
class  interests  by  the  Keform  Bill,  the  House  of  Commons 
was  still  composed,  as  to  nine-tenths  of  its  whole  number,  by 
representatives  of  the  landlords.  The  entire  House  of  Lords 
tlien  was  constituted  of  the  owners  of  land.  All  tradition,  all 
prestige,  all  the  dignity  of  aristocratic  institutions,  seemed  to 
be  naturally  arrayed  against  the  new  movement,  conducted  as 
it  was  by  manufacturers  and  traders  for  the  benefit  seemingly 
01  trade  and  those  whom  it  employed.  The  artisan  population 
wdio  might  have  been  formidable  as  a  disturbing  element  were 
on  the  whole  rather  against  the  Free  Traders  than  for  them. 
Nearly  all  the  great  official  leaders  had  to  be  converted  to  the 
doctrines  of  Free  Trade. 

The  Anti-Corn  Law  agitation  introduced  a  game  of  politics 
into  England  which  astonished  and  considerably  discomfited 
steady-going  politicians.  The  League  men  did  not  profess  to 
be  bound  by  any  indefeasible  bond  of  allegiance  to  the  Whig 
party.  They  were  prepared  to  co-operate  w^ith  any  party 
whatever  which  would  undertake  to  abolish  the  Corn  Laws. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  were 
not  in  the  least  discouraged  by  the  accession  of  Sir  Eobert 
Peel  to  power.  Their  hopes  seem  rather  to  have  gone  up  than 
gone  down  when  the  minister  came  into  power  whose  adherents, 
unlike  those  of  Lord  John  Ptussell,  were  absolutely  against  the 
very  principle  ot  Free  Trade.  It  is  certain  that  tlie  League 
always  regarded  Sir  Eobert  Peel  as  a  Free  Trader  in  heart ;  as 
one  who  fully  admitted  the  principle  ol  Free  Trade,  but  who 
did  not  see  his  way  just  then  to  deprive  the  agricultural 
interest  of  the  protection  on  which  they  had  for  so  many  years 
been  allowed  and  encouraged  to  lean. 

The    country    party    did    not    understand    Sir    Robert 


cii.  VI.  THE  ANTI-CORN  LAW  LEAGUE.  73 

Peel  as  their  opponents  and  his  assuredly  understood  him. 
They  did  not  at  this  time  believe  in  the  possibility  of  any 
change.  Free  Trade  was  to  them  little  more  than  an  abstrac- 
tion. They  did  not  much  care  who  preached  it  out  of  Parlia- 
ment. They  were  convinced  that  the  state  of  things  they 
saw  around  them  when  they  were  boys  would  continue  to  the 
end.  Both  parties  in  the  House — that  is  to  say,  both  of  the 
parties  from  whom  ministers  were  taken — alike  set  themselves 
against  the  introduction  of  any  Free  Trade  measure. 

It  would  have  been  better  if  Sir  Kobert  Peel  had  devoted 
himself  more  directly  to  preparing  the  minds  of  his  followers 
for  the  fact  that  protection  for  grain  having  ceased  to  be  tenable 
as  an  economic  principle  would  possibly  some  day  have  to  be 
given  up  as  a  practice.  He  might  have  been  able  to  show 
them,  as  the  events  have  shown  them  since,  that  the  intro- 
duction of  free  corn  would  be  a  blessing  to  the  population  of 
England  in  general,  and  would  do  nothing  but  good  for  the 
landed  interest  as  well.  The  influence  of  Peel  at  that  time, 
and  indeed  all  through  his  administration  up  to  the  introduc- 
tion 01  his  Free  Trade  measures,  was  limitless,  so  far  as  his 
party  were  concerned.  He  could  have  done  anything  with 
them.  But  Peel,  to  begin  with,  was  a  reserved,  cold,  somewhat 
awkward  man.  He  was  not  effusive ;  he  did  not  pour  out  his 
emotions  and  reveal  all  his  changes  of  opinion  in  bursts  of 
confidence  even  to  his  habitual  associates.  He  brooded  over 
these  things  in  his  own  mind;  he  gave  such  expression  to 
them  in  open  debate  as  any  passing  occasion  seemed  strictly 
to  call  for ;  and  he  assumed  perhaps  that  the  gradual  changes 
operatmg  in  his  views  when  thus  expressed  were  understood 
by  his  followers.  Above  all,  it  is  probable  that  Peel  himself 
did  not  see  until  almost  the  last  moment  that  the  time  had 
actually  come  when  the  principle  of  Protection  must  give  way 
to  other  and  more  weighty  claims. 

We  see  how  the  two  great  parties  of  the  State  stood  with 
regard  to  this  question  of  Free  Trade.  The  Whigs  were 
steadily  gravitating  towards  it.  Their  leaders  did  not  quite 
see  their  way  to  accept  it  as  a  principle  of  practical  states- 
manship, but  it?  was  evident  that  their  acceptance  of  it  was 
only  a  question  of  time,  and  of  no  long  time.  The  leader  of 
the  Tory  party  was  being  drawn  day  by  day  more  in  the  same 
direction.  Both  leaders,  Russell  and  Peel,  had  gone  so  lar  as 
to  admit  the  general  principle  of  Free  Trade.  Peel  had  con- 
tended that  grain  was  in  England  a  necessary  exception ; 

4 


74        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.        ch.  vi. 

Eussell  was  not  of  opinion  that  the  time  had  come  when  it 
could  be  treated  otherwise  than  as  an  exception.  The  Free 
Trade  party  was  daily  growing  more  and  more  powerful  with 
the  country.  This  must  soon  have  ended  in  one  or  other  of 
the  two  great  ruling  parties  forming  an  alliance  with  the  Free 
Traders.  But  in  the  case  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  agitation,  an 
event  over  which  political  parties  had  no  control  intervened  to 
spur  the  intent  of  the  Prime  Minister.  Mr.  Bright  many  years 
after,  when  pronouncing  the  eulogy  of  his  dead  friend  Cobden, 
described  what  happened  in  a  fine  sentence  :  '  Famine  itself, 
against  which  we  had  warred,  joined  us.'  In  the  autumn  of 
1845  the  potato  rot  began  in  Ireland. 

The  vast  majority  of  the  working  population  of  Ireland  were 
known  to  depend  absolutely  on  the  potato  for  subsistence.  In 
the  northern  province,  where  the  population  were  of  Scotch  ex- 
traction, the  oatmeal,  the  brose  of  their  ancestors,  still  supplied 
the  staple  of  their  food  ;  but  in  the  southern  and  western  pro- 
vinces a  large  proportion  of  the  peasantry  actually  lived  on  the 
potato  and  the  potato  alone.  In  these  districts  whole  generations 
grew  up,  lived,  married,  and  passed  away,  without  having  ever 
tasted  flesh  meat.  It  was  evident  then  that  a  failure  in  the 
potato  crop  would  be  equivalent  to  a  famine.  The  news  came 
in  the  autumn  of  1845  that  the  long  continuance  of  sunless 
wet  and  cold  had  imperilled,  if  not  already  destroyed,  the 
food  of  a  people. 

The  Cabinet  of  Sir  Eobert  Peel  held  hasty  meetings 
closely  following  each  other.  People  began  to  ask  whether 
Parliament  was  about  to  be  called  together,  and  whether 
the  Government  had  resolved  on  8,  bold  policy.  The  Anti- 
Corn  Law  League  were  clamouring  for  the  opening  of  the 
ports.  The  Prime  Minister  himself  was  strongly  in  favour  of 
such  a  course.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Stanley, 
however,  opposed  the  idea  of  the  opening  of  the  ports,  and 
the  proposal  fell  through.  The  Cabinet  merely  resolved  on 
appointing  a  Commission,  consisting  of  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments in  Ireland,  to  take  some  steps  to  guard  against  a  sudden 
outbreak  of  famine,  and  the  thought  of  an  autumnal  session 
was  abandoned. 

The  great  cry  all  through  Ireland  was  for  the  opening 
of  the  ports.  The  Mansion  House  Eelief  Committee  of 
Dublin  issued  a  series  of  resolutions  declaring  that  the  potato 
disease  was  daily  expanding  more  and  more,  and  the  document 
concluded  with  a  denunciation  of  the  Ministry  for  not  opening 


CH.  VI.  THE  ANTl CORN  LAW  LEAGUE.  75 

the  ports,  or  calling  Parliament  together  before  the  usual  time 
for  its  assembling. 

Two  or  three  days  after  the  issue  of  these  resolutions 
Lord  John  Eussell  wrote  a  letter  from  Edinburgh  to  his 
constituents,  the  electors  of  the  City  of  London,  announcing 
his  unqualified  conversion  to  the  principles  of  the  Anti-Corn 
Law  League.  The  failure  of  the  potato  crop  was  of  course 
the  immediate  occasion  of  this  letter.  As  Peel  himself  said, 
the  letter '  justified  the  conclusion  that  the  Whig  party  was  pre- 
pared to  unite  with  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  in  demanding 
the  total  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws.'  Peel  would  not  consent  now 
to  propose  simply  an  opening  of  the  ports.  It  would  seem,  he 
thought,  a  mere  submission  to  accept  the  minimum  of  the 
terms  ordered  by  the  Whig  leader.  Sir  Eobert  Peel  therefore 
recommended  to  his  Cabinet  an  early  meeting  of  Parliament 
with  the  view  of  bringing  forward  some  measure  equivalent 
to  a  speedy  Kepeal  of  the  Corn  Laws. 

The  recommendation  was  wise.  It  was,  indeed,  indis- 
pensable. Yet  neither  Whigs  nor  Tories  appear  to  have 
formed  a  judgment  because  of  facts  or  principles,  but  only 
in  deference  to  the  political  necessities  of  the  hour.  The 
potato  rot  inspired  the  writing  of  Lord  John  Eussell' s  letter ; 
and  Lord  John  Eussell' s  letter  inspired  Sir  Eobert  Peel 
with  the  conviction  that  something  must  be  done.  Most  of 
Peel's  colleagues  were  inclmed  to  go  with  him  this  time.  A 
Cabinet  Council  was  held  on  November  25,  almost  immediately 
after  the  publication  of  Lord  John  Eussell's  letter.  At  that 
council  Sir  Eobert  Peel  recommended  the  summoning  of 
Parliament  with  a  view  to  instant  measures  to  combat  the 
famine  in  Ireland,  but  with  a  view  also  to  some  announcement 
of  legislation  intended  to  pave  the  way  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws.  Lord  Stanley  and  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  inti- 
mated to  the  Prime  Minister  that  they  could  not  be  parties  to 
any  measure  involving  the  ultimate  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws. 
Sir  Eobert  Peel  did  not  believe  that  he  could  carry  out  his 
project  satisfactorily  under  such  circumstances,  and  he  there- 
fore hastened  to  tender  his  resignation  to  the  Queen. 

Lord  John  Eussell  was  sent  for  from  Edinburgh.  His 
letter  had  without  any  such  purpose  on  his  part  written  him 
up  as  the  man  to  take  Sir  Eobert  Peel's  place.  Lord  John 
Eussell  came  to  London  and  did  his  best  to  cope  with  the 
many  difficulties  of  the  situation.  His  party  were  not  very 
strong  in  the  country,  and  they  had  not  a  majority  in  the  House 


76        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVM   TIMES.        CH.  VL 

of  Commons.  Lord  John  Russell  showed,  even  then,  hia 
characteristic  courage.  He  resolved  to  form  a  Ministry  with- 
out a  Parliamentary  majority.  He  was  not  however  fated  to 
try  the  ordeal.  Lord  Grey,  who  was  a  few  months  before 
Lord  Ho  wick,  and  who  had  just  succeeded  to  the  title  of  his 
father  (the  stately  Charles  Earl  Grey,  the  pupil  of  Fox,  and 
chief  of  the  Cabinet  which  passed  the  Eeform  Bill  and  abolished 
slavery)~Lord  Grey  felt  a  strong  objection  to  the  foreign 
policy  of  Lord  Palmerston,  and  these  two  could  not  get  on  in 
one  Ministry  as  it  was  part  of  Lord  John  Eussell's  plan  that 
they  should  do. 

Lord  John  Russell  found  it  impossible  to  form  a  Ministry, 
He  signified  his  failure  to  the  Queen.  Probably,  having  done 
the  best  he  could,  he  was  not  particularly  distressed  to  find 
that  his  efforts  were  ineffectual.  The  Queen  had  to  send  for 
Sir  Robert  Peel  to  Windsor  and  tell  him  that  she  must  re- 
quire him  to  withdraw  his  resignation  and  to  remain  in  her 
service.  Sir  Robert  of  course  could  only  comply.  The  Duke 
of  Buccleuch  withdrew  his  opposition  to  the  policy  which 
Peel  w^as  now  to  carry  out ;  but  Lord  Stanley  remained  firm. 
The  jolace  of  the  latter  was  taken,  as  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Colonies,  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  however  curiously  enough 
remained  without  a  seat  in  Parliament  during  the  eventful 
session  that  was  now  to  come.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  sat  for  the 
borough  of  New^ark,  but  that  borough  being  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  w^ho  had  withdrawn  his 
support  from  the  Ministry,  he  did  not  invite  re-election,  but 
remained  without  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  some 
months.  Sir  Robert  Peel  then,  to  use  his  own  words,  resumed 
power  '  with  greater  means  of  rendering  public  service  than  I 
should  have  had  if  I  had  not  relinquished  it.'  He  felt,  he 
said,  '  like  a  man  restored  to  life  after  his  funeral  sermon  had 
been  preached.' 

Parliament  was  summoned  to  meet  in  January.  In  the  mean- 
time it  was  easily  seen  how  the  Protectionists  and  the  Tories  of 
the  extreme  order  generally  would  regard  the  proposals  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel.  Protectionist  meetings  were  held  in  various 
parts  of  the  country,  and  they  were  all  but  unanimous  in  con- 
demning by  anticipation  the  policy  of  the  restored  Premier. 
Resolutions  were  passed  at  many  of  these  meetings  expressing 
an  equal  disbelief  in  the  Prime  Minister  and  in  the  famine. 
The  utmost  indignation  was  expressed  at  the  idea  ol  there  being 
any  famine  in  prospect  which  could  cause  any  departure  irom 


CH.  VI.  THE  ANTI-CORN  LAW  LEAGUE,  77 

the  principles  which  secured  to  the  farmers  a  certain  fixed 
price  for  their  grain,  or  at  least  prevented  the  price  from  falling 
below  what  they  considered  a  paying  amomit. 

Parliament  met.  The  opening  day  was  January  22,  1846. 
There  are  few  scenes  more  animated  and  exciting  than 
that  presented  by  the  House  of  Commons  on  some  night  when 
a  great  debate  is  expected,  or  when  some  momentous  an- 
nouncement is  to  be  made.  A  common  thrill  seems  to  tremble 
all  through  the  assembly  as  a  breath  of  wind  runs  across  the 
sea.  The  House  appears  for  the  moment  to  be  one  body  per- 
vaded by  one  expectation.  The  Ministerial  benches,  the  front 
benches  of  opposition,  are  occupied  by  the  men  of  political 
renown  and  of  historic  name.  The  benches  everywhere  else  are 
crowded*  to  their  utmost  capacity.  Members  who  cannotV 
get  seats  — on  such  an  occasion  a  goodly  number — stand  belo\\^'j  1 
the  bar  or  have  to  dispose  themselves  along  the  side  galleries. ' 
The  celebrities  are  not  confined  to  the  Treasury  benches  or 
those  of  the  leaders  of  opposition.  Here  and  there,  among 
the  independent  members  and  below  the  gangway  on  both 
sides,  are  seen  men  of  influence  and  renown.  The  strangers' 
gallery,  the  Speaker's  gallery  on  such  a  night  are  crowded  to 
excess.  The  eye  surveys  the  whole  House  and  sees  no  vacant 
place.  In  the  very  hum  01  conversation  that  runs  along  the 
benches  there  is  a  tone  of  profound  anxiety.  The  minister 
who  has  to  face  that  House  and  make  the  announcement  for 
which  all  are  waiting  in  a  most  feverish  anxiety  is  a  man  to 
be  envied  by  the  ambitious. 

The  Prime  Minister  went  into  long  and  laboured  explana-. 
tions  of  .the  manner  in  which  his  mind  had  been  brought  into 
a  change  on  the  subject  of  Free  Trade  and  Protection,  and  he 
gave  exhaustive  calculations  to  show  that  the  reduction  oi 
duty  was  constantly  followed  by  expansion  of  the  revenue,  and 
even  a  maintenance  of  high  prices.  The  duties  on  glass,  the 
duties  on  flax,  the  prices  of  salt  pork  and  domestic  lard,  the 
contract  price  of  salt  beef  for  the  navy — these  and  -many 
other  such  topics  were  discussed  at  great  length,  and  with 
elaborate  fulness  of  detail,  in  the  hearing  of  an  eager  House 
anxious  only  for  that  night  to  know  whether  or  not  the  minister 
meant  to  introduce  the  principle  of  Free  Trade.  Peel,  how- 
ever, made  it  clear  enough  that  he  had  become  a  complete 
convert  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Manchester  school,  and  that 
in  his  opinion  the  time  had  come  when  that  protection  he  had 
taken  office  to  maintain  must  for  ever  be  abandoned. 


78        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH   VL 

The  explanation  was  over.  The  House  of  Commons  were 
left  rather  to  infer  than  to  understand  what  the  Government 
proposed  to  do.  There  appeared  therefore  nothing  for  it  but  to 
wait  until  the  time  should  come  for  the  formal  announcement 
and  the  full  discussion  of  the  Government  measures.  Sud- 
denly, however,  a  new  and  striking  figure  intervened  in  the 
languishing  debate,  and  filled  the  House  of  Commons  with 
a  fresh  life.  There  is  not  often  to  be  found  in  our  Parliamen- 
tary history  an  example  like  this  of  a  sudden  turn  given  to  a 
whole  career  by  a  timely  speech.  The  member  who  rose  to 
comment  on  the  explanation  of  Sir  Kobert  Peel  had  been  for 
many  years  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This  *vas  his  tenth 
session.  He  had  spoken  often  in  each  session.  He  had  made 
many  bold  attempts  to  win  a  name  in  Parliament,  and 
hitherto  his  political  career  had  been  simply  a  failure.  From 
the  hour  when  he  spoke  this  speech,  it  was  one  long,  unbroken, 
brilliant  success. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MR.   DISRAELI, 

The  speaker  who  rose  into  such  sudden  prominence  and 
something  like  the  position  of  a  party  leader  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  the  politics  of  the  reign  have  produced. 
Mr.  Disraeli  entered  the  House  of  Commons  as  Conservative 
member  for  Maidstone  in  1837.  He  was  then  .  about  thirty- 
two  years  of  age.  He  had  previously  made  repeated  and  un- 
successful attempts  to  get  a  seat  in  Parliament.  He  began 
his  political  career  as  an  advanced  Liberal,  and  had  described 
himself  as  one  who  desired  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  people,  and 
who  was  supported  by  neither  of  the  aristocratic  parties.  He 
failed  again  and  again,  and  apparently  he  began  to  think  that 
it  would  be  a  wiser  thing  to  look  for  the  support  of  one  or 
other  of  the  aristocratic  parties.  He  had  before  this  given  in- 
dications of  remarkable  literary  capacity.  His  novel,  *  Vivian 
Grey,'  published  when  he  was  in  his  twenty-third  year,  was 
suffused  with  extravagance,  affectation  and  mere  animal  spirits  ; 
but  it  was  full  of  the  evidences  of  a  fresh  and  brilliant  ability. 
The  son  of  a  distinguished  literary  man,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  pro- 
bably at  that  time  only  a  young  literary  man's  notions  of 
politics.     It  is  not  necessary  to  cliarge  him  with  deliberate  in- 


CH.  VII,  MR    DISRAELI.  79 

consistency  because  from  having  been  a  Radical  of  the  most 
advanced  views  he  became  by  an  easy  leap  a  romantic  Tory. 
It  is  not  likely  that  at  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  had  any 
very  clear  ideas  in  connection  with  the  words  Tory  or  Radical. 
When  young  Disraeli  found  that  advanced  Radicalism  did  not 
do  much  to  get  him  into  Parliament,  he  probably  began  to  ask 
himself  whether  his  Liberal  con\dctions  were  so  deeply  rooted  as 
to  call  for  the  sacrifice  of  a  career.  He  thought  the  question 
over,  and  doubtless  found  himself  crystallising  fast  into  an 
advocate  of  the  established  order  of  things. 

No  trace  of  the  progress  of  conversion  can  be  found  in  his 
speeches  or  his  writings.     It  is  not  unreasonable  to  mfer  that 
he  took  up  Radicalism  at  the  beginning  because  it  looked  the 
most  picturesque  and  romantic  thing  to  do,  and  tliat  only  as 
he  found  it  fail  to  answer  his  personal  object  did  it  occiu'  to 
him  that  he  had  after  all  more  affinity  with  the  cause  of  the 
country  gentlemen.     The  reputation  he  had  made  for  himself 
before  his  going  into  Parliament  was  of  a  nature  rather  calcu- 
lated to  retard  than  to  advance  a  political  career.     He  was 
looked  upon  almost  universally  as  an  eccentric  and  audacious 
adventurer,  who  was  kept  from  being  dangerous  by  the  affecta- 
tions and  absurdities  of  his  conduct.     He  dressed  in  tlie  ex- 
tremest  style  of  preposterous  foppery  ;  he  talked  a  blending  of 
cynicism  anil  sentiment ;  he  made  the  most  reckless  statements  ; 
his  boasting  was  almost  outrageous  ;  his  rhetoric  of  abuse  was, 
even  in  that  free-spoken  time,  astonishingly  vigorous  and  un- 
restrained.    Even  then  his  literary  efforts  did  not  then  receive 
anything  like  the  appreciation  they  have  obtained  since.     At 
that  time  they  were  regarded  rather  as  audacious  whimsicalities, 
the  fantastic  freaks  of  a  clever  youth,  than  as  genuine  works  of 
a  certain  kind  of  art.    Even  when  he  did  get  into  the  House  of 
Commons,  his  first  experience  there  was  little  calculated  to 
give   him   much  hope   of   success.      Reading   over  his   first 
speech   now,   it   seems   hard  to   understand  why   it   should 
have  excited  so  much  laughter  and  derision ;  why  it  should 
have  called  forth  nothing  but  laughter  and  derision.     It  is  a 
clever  speech,  full  of  point  and  odd  conceits  ;  very  like  in  style 
and  structure  many  of  the  speeches  which  in  later  years  won 
for  the  same  orator  the  applause  of  the  House   of  Commons. 
But  Mr.  Disraeli's  reputation  had  preceded  him  mto  the  House. 
The  House   was  probably  in  a  humour  to  find  the  speech 
ridiculous  because  the  general  impression  was  that  the  man 
himself  was  ridiculous.     Mr.  Disraeli's  appearance,  too,  no 


«0        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  vn. 

doubt  contributed  something  to  tlie  contemptuous  opinion 
which  was  formed  of  him  on  his  first  attempt  to  adlress  the 
assembly  which  he  afterwards  came  to  rule.  He  is  de- 
scribed by  an  observer  as  having  been  '  attired  in  a  bottle- 
green  frock  coat  and  a  waistcoat  of  white,  of  the  Dick 
Swiveller  pattern,  the  front  of  which  exhibited  a  network  of 
glittering  chains  ;  large  fancy  pattern  pantaloons,  and  a  black 
tie,  above  which  no  shirt  collar  was  visible,  completed  the 
outward  man.  A  countenance  lividly  pale,  set  out  by  a  pair 
of  intensely  black  eyes,  and  a  broad  but  not  very  high  fore- 
head, overhung  by  clustering  ringlets  of  coal-black  hair,  which, 
combed  away  from  the  right  temple,  fell  in  bunches  of  well- 
oiled  small  ringlets  over  his  left  cheek.'  His  manner  was 
intensely  theatric ;  his  gestures  were  wild  and  extravagant. 
Mr.  Disraeli  made  not  merely  a  failure,  but  even  a  ludicrous 
failure.  One  who  heard  the  debate  thus  describes  the  manner 
in  which,  baffled  by  the  persistent  laughter  and  other  interrup- 
tions of  the  noisy  House,  the  orator  withdrew  from  the  dis- 
cussion defeated  but  not  discouraged.  *  At  last,  losing 
his  temper,  which  until  now  he  had  preserved  in  a  wonderful 
manner,  he  paused  in  the  midst  of  a  sentence,  and  looking  the 
Liberals  indignantly  in  the  face,  raised  his  hands,  and  opening 
his  mouth  as  widely  as  its  dimensions  would  admit,  said  in  a 
remarkably  loud  and  almost  terrific  tone,  "  I  have  begun  several 
times  many  things,  and  I  have  often  succeeded  at  last ;  ay, 
sir,  and  though  I  sit  down  now,  the  time  will  come  when  you 
will  hear  me."  ' 

Disraeli  was  not  in  the  least  discouraged  by  his  first 
failure.  A  few  days  after  it  he  spoke  again,  and  he  spoke 
three  or  four  times  more  during  his  first  session.  But  he  had 
earned  some  wisdom  by  rough  experience,  and  he  did  not 
make  his  oratorical  flights  so  long  or  so  ambitious  as  that  first 
attempt.  Then  he  seemed  after  a  while,  as  he  grew  more 
familiar  with  the  House,  to  go  in  for  being  paradoxical ;  for 
making  himself  always  conspicuous  ;  for  taking  up  positions 
and  expounding  political  creeds  which  other  men  would  have 
avoided.  It  is  very  difficult  to  get  any  clear  idea  of  what  his 
opinions  were  about  this  period  of  his  career,  if  he  had  any 
political  opinions  at  all.  He  spoke  on  subjects  of  which  it 
was  evident  that  he  knew  nothing,  and  sometimes  he  managed 
by  the  sheor  force  of  a  strong  intelligence  to  discern  the 
absurdity  of  economic  sophistries  which  had  baffled  men  of 
far  gi'eater  experience,  and  which  indeed,  to  judge  from  his 


en.  vii.  MR,  DISRAELI.  ,  Si 

personal  declarations  and  political  conduct  afterwards,  he 
allowed  before  long  to  baffle  and  bewilder  himself.  More 
often,  however,  he  talked  with  a  grandiose  and  oracular 
vagueness  which  seemed  to  imply  that  he  alone  of  all  men 
saw  into  the  very  heart  of  the  question,  but  that  he,  of  all 
men,  must  not  yet  reveal  what  he  saw.  Mr.  Disraeli  was  at 
one  period  of  his  career  so  affected  that  he  positively  affected 
affectation.  Yet  he  was  a  man  of  undoubted  genius  ;  he  had 
a  spirit  that  never  quailed  under  stress  of  any  circumstances, 
however  disheartening. 

For  some  time  Mr.  Disraeli  then  seemed  resolved  to  make 
himself  remarkable — to  be  talked  about.  He  succeeded 
admirably.  He  was  talked  about.  All  the  political  and 
satirical  journals  of  the  day  had  a  great  deal  to  say  about 
him.  He  is  not  spoken  of  in  terms  of  praise  as  a  rule. 
Neither  has  he  much  praise  to  shower  about  him.  Anyone 
wlio  looks  back  to  the  political  controversies  of  that  time  will 
be  astounded  at  the  language  which  Mr.  Disraeli  addresses  to 
his  opponents  of  the  press,  and  which  his  opponents  address 
to  liim.  The  duelling  system  survived  then  and  for  long 
after,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  always  professed  himself  ready  to 
sustain  with  his  pistol  anything  that  his  lips  might  have 
given  utterance  to,  even  in  the  reckless  heat  of  controversy. 
He  kept  himself  well  up  to  the  level  of  his  time  in 
the  calling  of  names  and  the  swaggering.  But  he  vvas 
making  himself  remarkable  in  political  controversy  as  well. 
In  the  House  of  Commons  he  began  to  be  regarded  as  a 
dangerous  adversary  in  debate.  He  was  wonderfully  ready 
with  retort  and  sarcasm.  But  during  all  the  earlier  part  oi 
his  career  he  was  thought  of  only  as  a  free  lance.  He  had 
praised  Peel  when  Peel  said  something  that  suited  him,  or 
when  to  praise  Peel  seemed  likely  to  wound  someone  else. 
But  it  was  during  the  discussions  on  the  abolition  of  the  Corn 
Laws  that  he  first  rose  to  the  fame  of  a  great  debater  and  a 
powerful  Parliamentary  orator. 

Hitherto  he  had  wanted  a  cause  to  inspire  and  justify 
audacity,  and  on  which  to  employ  with  effect  his  remarkable 
resources  of  sarcasm  and  rhetoric.  Hitherto  he  had  addressed 
an  audience  for  the  most  part  out  of  sympathy  with  him. 
Now  he  was  about  to  become  the  spokesman  of  a  large  body 
of  men  who,  chafing  and  almost  choking  with  wrath,  were 
not  capable  of  speaking  effectively  for  themselves.  Mr. 
Disraeli  did  therefore  the  very  wisest  thing  he  could  do  when 
4-^ 


82         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OW.V  TIMES,     ch.  vii. 

he  launched  at  once  mto  a  savage  personal  attack  upon  Sir 
Eobert  PeeL 

From  that  hour  Mr.  Disraeli  was  the  real  leader  of  the 
Tory  squires ;  from  that  moment  his  voice  gave  the  word  of 
command  to  the  Tory  party.  Disraeli  made  his  own  career 
by  the  course  he  took  on  that  memorable  night,  and  he  also 
made  a  new  career  for  the  Tory  party. 

One  immediate  effect  of  the  turn  thus  given  by  Disraeli's 
timely  intervention  in  the  debate  was  the  formation  of  a 
Protection  party  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  leadership 
of  this  perilous  adventure  was  entrusted  to  Lord  George 
Bentinck,  a  sporting  nobleman  of  energetic  character,  great 
tenacity  of  purpose  and  conviction,  and  a  not  inconsiderable 
aptitude  for  politics  which  had  hitherto  had  no  opportunity 
for  either  exercising  or  displaying  itself.  Lord  George 
Bentinck  had  sat  in  eight  Parliaments  without  taking  part  in 
any  great  debate.  When  he  was  suddenly  drawn  into  the 
leadership  of  the  Protection  party  in  the  House  of  Comn^ons, 
he  gave  himself  up  to  it  entirely.  He  had  at  first  only 
joined  the  party  as  one  of  its  organisers  ;  but  he  showed  him- 
self in  many  respects  well  fitted  for  the  leadership,  and  the 
choice  of  leaders  was  in  any  case  very  limited.  When  once 
he  had  accepted  the  position  he  was  unwearying  in  his 
attention  to  its  duties  ;  and  indeed  up  to  the  moment  of 
his  sudden  and  premature  death  he  never  allowed  himself  any 
relaxation  from  the  cares  it  imposed  on  him.  Bentinck's 
abilities  were  hardly  even  of  the  second  class ;  and  the 
amount  of  knowledge  which  he  brought  to  bear  on  the 
questions  he  discussed  with  so  much  earnestness  and  energy 
was  often  and  of  necessity  little  better  than  mere  cram.  But 
in  Parliament  the  essential  qualities  of  a  leader  are  not  great 
powers  of  intellect.  A  man  of  cool  head,  good  temper,  firm 
will,  and  capacity  for  appreciating  the  serviceable  qualities  of 
other  men,  may,  always  provided  that  he  has  high  birth  and 
great  social  influence,  make  a  very  successful  leader,  even 
though  he  be  wanting  altogether  in  the  higher  attributes  of 
eloquence  and  statesmanship.  Bentinck  had  patience,  energy, 
good  humour,  and  considerable  appreciation  of  the  characters 
of  men.  If  he  had  a  bad  voice,  and  was  a  poor  speaker,  he  at 
least  always  spoke  in  lull  faith,  and  was  only  the  more  neces- 
sary to  his  party  because  he  could  honestly  continue  to 
believe  in  the  old  doctrines,  no  matter  what  political  economy 
and  hard  facts  might  say  to  the  contrary. 


CH.  VII.  MR.   DISRAELI.  83 

The  secession  was,  therefore,  in  full  course  of  organisation. 
On  January  27  Sir  Kobert  Peel  came  forward  to  explain  his 
financial  policy.  His  object  was  to  abandon  the  sliding  scale 
altogether ;  but  for  the  present  he  intended  to  impose  a  duty  of 
ten  'shillings  a  quarter  on  corn  when  the  price  of  it  was  mider 
forty-eight  shillings  a  quarter ;  to  reduce  that  duty  by  one 
shilling  for  every  shilling  oi  rise  in  price  until  it  reached  fifty- 
three  shillings  a  quarter,  when  the  duty  should  fall  to  four 
shillings.  This  arrangement  was,  however,  only  to  hold  good 
for  three  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  protective  duties  on 
grain  were  to  be  wholly  abandoned.  Peel  explained  that  he 
intended  gradually  to  apply  the  principle  of  Free  Trade  to 
manufactures  and  every  description  of  produce,  bearing  in 
mind  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  expenditure  of  the 
country,  and  of  smoothing  away  some  of  the  difficulties  which 
a  sudden  v/ithdrawal  of  protection  might  cause.  The  dif- 
ferential duties  on  sugar,  which  were  professedly  intended  to 
protect  the  growers  of  free  sugars  against  the  competition  of 
those  who  cultivated  sugar  by  the  use  of  slave  labour,  were  to 
be  diminished  but  not  abolished.  The  duties  on  the  importa- 
tion of  foreign  cattle  were  to  be  at  once  removed. 

The  proposals  of  the  Ministry  did  not  wholly  satisfy  the 
professed  Free  Traders.  These  latter  would  have  enforced,  if 
they  could,  an  immediate  application  of  the  principle  without 
the  interval  of  three  years,  and  the  devices  and  shifts  which 
were  to  be  put  in  operation  during  that  middle  time.  But,  of 
course,  they  had  no  idea  of  not  taking  what  they  could  get. 

The  third  reading  of  the  bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons 
on  May  15,  by  a  majority  of  98  votes.  The  bill  was  at  once 
sont  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  by  means  chiefly  of  the 
earnest  advice  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  was  carried  through 
that  House  without  much  serious  opposition.  But  June  25, 
the  day  when  the  bill  was  read  for  a  third  time  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  was  a  memorable  day  in  the  Parliamentary  annals  of 
England.  It  saw  the  tall  of  the  Ministry  who  had  carried  to 
success  the  greatest  piece  of  legislation  that  had  been  intro- 
duced since  Lord  Grey's  Eeform  Bill. 

A  Coercion  Bill  for  Ireland  was  the  measure  which  brought 
this  catastrophe  on  the  Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel. 
While  the  Corn  Bill  was  yet  passing  through  the  House  of 
Commons  the  Government  felt  called  upon,  in  consequence  of 
the  condition  of  crime  and  outrage  in  Ireland,  to  introduce  a  ■ 
Coercion  Bill.    This  placed  them  in  a  serious  difficulty.     All  1 


84         A   SHGRT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  vii. 

the  Irisli  followers  of  O'Connell  would  of  course  oppose  the 
coercion  measure.  The  Whigs  when  out  of  office  have  usually 
made  it  a  rule  to  oppose  coercion  bills  if  they  do  not  come 
accompanied  with  some  promises  of  legislative  reform  and  con- 
cession. The  English  Kadical  members,  Mr.  Cobden  an&  his 
followers,  were  almost  sure  to  oppose  it.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, it  seemed  probable  enough  that  if  the  Protectionists 
joined  with  the  other  opponents  of  the  Coercion  Bill,  the 
Government  must  be  defeated.  The  temptation  w^as  too  great. 
The  fiercer  Protectionists  voted  with  the  Free  Traders,  the 
Whigs,  and  the  IrisJi  Catholic  and  Liberal  members,  and  after 
a  debate  of  much  bitterness  and  passion,  the  division  on  the 
second  reading  of  the  Coercion  Bill  took  place  on  Thursday, 
June  25,  and  the  Ministry  were  left  in  a  minority  of  73. 
Some  eighty  of  the  Protectionists  followed  Lord  George 
Bentinck  into  the  lobby  to  vote  against  the  bill,  and  their 
votes  settled  the  question.  Chance  had  put  within  their  grasp 
the  means  of  vengeance,  and  they  had  seized  it,  and  made 
successful  use  of  it.  The  Peel  Ministry  had  fallen  in  its  very 
hour  of  triumph. 

Three  days. after  Sir  Kobert  Peel  announced  his  resignation 
of  office.  So  great  a  success  followed  by  so  sudden  and 
complete  a  fall  is  hardly  recorded  in  the  Parliamentary  history 
of  our  modern  times.  Peel  had  crushed  O'Connell  and  carried 
Free  Trade,  and  O'Connell  and  the  Protectionists  had  life 
enough  yefc  to  pull  him  down.  He  is  as  a  conqueror  who, 
having  won  the  great  victory  of  his  life,  is  struck  by  a  hostile 
hand  in  some  by-w^ay  as  he  passes  home  to  enjoy  his  triumph. 


CHAPTER   Vm. 

FAMINE    AND    POLITICAL    TROUBLE. 

Loud  John  Russell  succeeded  Sir  Robert  Peel  as  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury  ;  Lord  Palmerston  became  Foreign  Secretary ; 
Sir  Charles  Wood  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  Lord 
Grey  took  charge  of  the  Colonies  ;  and  Sir  George  Grey  was 
Home  Secretary.  Mr.  Macaulay  accepted  the  office  of  Pay- 
master-General, with  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  a  distinction  not 
usually  given  to  the  occupant  of  that  office.  The  Ministry  was 
not  particularly  strong  in  administrative  talent.  The  Premier 
and   the   Foreign  Secretary  were   the  only  members  of  the 


CH.  VIII.       FAMINE  AND   POLITICAL    TROUBLE.  85 

Cabinet  who  could  be  called  statesmen  of  the  first  class  ;  and 
even  Lord  Palmerston  had  not  as  yet  won  more  than  a  some- 
what doubtful  land  of  fame,  and  was  looked  upon  as  a  man 
quite  as  likely  to  do  mischief  as  good  to  any  Ministry  of  which 
he  might  happen  to  form  a  part.  Lord  Grey  then  and  since 
only  succeeded  somehow  in  missing  the  career  of  a  leading 
statesman.  He  had  great  talents  and  some  originality  ;  he  was 
independent  and  bold.  But  his  independence  degenerated  too 
often  into  impracticability  and  even  eccentricity  ;  and  he  was, 
in  fact,  a  politician  with  whom  ordinary  men  could  not  work. 
Sir  Charles  Wood,  the  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  had 
solid  sense  and  excellent  administrative  capacity,  but  he  was 
about  as  bad  a  public  speaker  as  ever  addi-essed  the  House  of 
Commons.  His  budget  speeches  were  often  made  so  unintel- 
ligible by  defective  manner  and  delivery  that  they  might 'almost 
as  well  have  been  spoken  in  a  foreign  language.  Sir  George 
Grey  was  a  speaker  of  fearful  fluency,  and  a  respectable 
administrator  of  the  second  or  third  class.  He  was  as  plod- . 
ding  in  administration  as  he  was  precipitate  of  speech. 

The  position  of  the  Government  of  Lord  John  Russell  was 
not  one  to  be  envied.  The  Lish  famine  occupied  all  attention, 
and  soon  seemed  to  be  an  evil  too  great  for  any  Ministry  to  deal 
with.  The  failure  of  the  potato  was  an  overwhelming  disaster 
for  a  people  almost  wholly  agricultural  and  a  peasantry  long 
accustomed  to  live  upon  that  root  alone.  Ireland  contains 
very  few  large  towns;  when  the  naiies  of  four  or  five  are 
mentioned  the  list  is  done  with,  and  we  have  to  come  to  mere 
villages.  The  country  has  hardly  any  manufactures  except  that 
of  linen  in  the  northern  province.  In  the  south  and  west  the 
people  live  by  agriculture  alone.  The  cottier  system,  which 
prevailed  almost  universally  in  three  of  the  four  provinces, 
was  an  arrangement  by  which  a  man  obtained  in  return  for 
his  labour  a  right  to  cultivate  a  little  patch  of  gi'ound,  just 
enough  to  supply  him  with  food  for  the  scanty  maintenance 
of  his  family.  The  great  landlords  were  for  the  most  part 
absentees ;  the  smaller  landlords  were  often  deeply  in  debt, 
and  were  therefore  compelled  to  screw  every  possible  penny  of 
rent  out  of  their  tenants-at-will. 

Underlying  all  the  relations  of  landlord  and  tenant  in 
Ireland  were  two  great  facts.  The  occupation  of  land  was 
virtually  a  necessity  of  life  to  the  Irish  tenant.  That  is  the 
first  fact.  The  second  is,  that  the  land  system  under  which 
Ireland  was  placed  was  one  entirely  foreign  to  the  traditions, 


86        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   CiVN  TIMES,      CH.  Vlil. 

the  ideas,  one  might  say  the  very  genius,  of  the  Irish  people. 
The  Irish  peasant  regarded  the  right  to  have  a  bit  of  land,  his 
share,  exactly  as  other  peoples  regard  the  right  to  live.  It  was 
in  his  mind  something  elementary  and  self-evident.  He  could 
not  be  loyal  to,  he  could  not  even  understand,  any  system 
which  did  not  secure  that  to  him. 

The  Irish  peasant  with  his  wife  and  his  family  lived  on 
the  potato.  Not  a  county  in  Ireland  wholly  escaped  the 
potato  disease,  and  many  of  the  southern  and  western  counties 
were  soon  in  actual  famine.  A  peculiar  form  of  fever — famine- 
fever  it  was  called — began  to  show  itself  everywhere.  A 
terrible  dysentery  set  in  as  well.  In  some  districts  the  people 
died  m  hundreds  daily  from  fever,  dysentery,  or  sheer  starva- 
tion. It  w^ould  have  been  impossible  that  in  such  a  country 
as  Ireland  a  famine  of  that  gigantic  kind  should  set  in  without 
bringing  crimes  of  violence  along  with  it.  Unfortunately  the 
Government  had  to  show  an  immense  activity  in  the  intro- 
duction of  Coercion  Bills  and  other  repressive  measures. 

Whatever  might  be  said  of  the  Government,  no  one  could 
doubt  the  goodwill  of  the  English  people.  National  lielief 
Associations  were  especially  formed  in  England.  Relief  indeed 
began  to  be  poured  in  from  all  countries.  The  misery  went  on 
deepening  and  broadening.  It  was  far  too  great  to  be  effectually 
encountered  by  subscriptions  however  generous;  and  the  Go- 
vernment, meaning  to  do  the  best  they  could,  were  practically  at 
their  wits'  end.  The  starving  peasants  streamed  into  the  nearest 
considerable  town  hoping  for  relief  there,  and  found  too  often 
that  there  the  very  sources  oi  charity  were  dried  up.  Many,  very 
many,  thus  disappointed,  merely  laid  down  on  the  pavement  and 
died  there.  Along  the  country  roads  one  met  everyv/here  groups 
oi  gaunt,  dim-eyed  wretches  clad  in  miserable  old  sacking  and 
wandering  aimlessly  with  some  vague  idea  of  finding  iood,  as 
the  boy  in  the  lable  hoped  to  find  the  gold  where  the  rainbow 
touched  the  earth.  Many  remained  in  their  empty  hovels 
and  took  Death  there  when  he  came.  In  some  regions  the 
coun';ry  seemed  unpeopled  for  miles. 

When  the  famine  was  over  and  its  results  came  to  be 
estimated,  it  was  found  that  Ireland  had  lost  about  two 
millions  of  her  population.  She  had  come  down  Irom  eight 
riillions  to  six.  This  was  the  combined  effect  of  starvation, 
of  the  various  diseases  that  followed  in  its  path  gleaning  where 
it  had  failed  to  gather,  and  of  emigration.  Long  after  all  the 
direct  effects  of  the   failure  of  the  potato  had  ceased,  the 


CH.  VIII.         FAMINE  AND  POLITICAL   TROUBLE.  87 

population  still  continued  steadily  to  decrease.  The  Irish 
peasant  had  in  fact  had  his  eyes  turned,  as  Mr.  Bright  after- 
wards expressed  it,  towards  the  setting  sun,  and  for  long  years 
the  stream  of  emigration  westward  never  abated  in  its  volume. 
A  new  Ireland  began  to  grow  up  across  the  Atlantic.  In 
every  great  city  of  the  United  States  the  Irish  element  began 
to  form  a  considerable  constituent  of  the  population. 

The  Government  had  hard  work  to  do  all  this  time.  Lord 
George  Bentinck  was  able  to  worry  the  Ministry  somewhat 
effectively  when  they  introduced  a  measure  to  reduce  gradually 
the  differential  duties  on  sugar  for  a  few  years,  and  then 
replace  these  duties  by  a  fixed  and  uniform  rate.  This  was  in 
short  a  proposal  to  apply  the  principle  of  Free  Trade,  instead 
of  Protection,  to  sugar.  Lord  George  Bentinck  therefore 
proposed  an  amendment  to  the  resolutions  of  the  Govern- 
ment, declaring  it  unjust  and  impolitic  to  reduce  the  duty  on 
foreign  slave-grown  sugar,  as  tending  to  check  the  advance  of 
production  by  British  free  labour,  and  to  give  a  great  additional 
stimulus  to  slave  labour.  Many  sincere  and  independent  oppo- 
nents of  slavery.  Lord  Brougham  in  the  House  of  Lords  among 
them,  were  caught  by  this  view  of  the  question.  Lord  George 
and  his  brilliant  lieutenant  at  one  time  appeared  as  if  they 
were  likely  to  carry  their  point  in  the  Commons.  But  it  was 
announced  that  if  the  resolutions  of  the  Government  were 
defeated  ministers  would  resign,  and  there  was  no  one  to  take 
their  place.  Peel  could  not  return  to  power ;  and  the  time 
was  far  distant  yet  when  Mr.  Disraeli  could  form  a  Ministry. 
The  opposition  crumbled  away  therefore,  and  the  Government 
measures  were  carried. 

There  were  troubles  abroad  as  well  as  at  home  for  the 
Government.  Almost  immediately  on  their  coming  into  office, 
the  project  of  the  Spanish  Marriages,  concocted  between  King 
Louis  Philippe  and  his  minister,  M.  Guizot,  disturbed  for  a  time 
and  very  seriously  the  good  understanding  between  England  and 
France.  In  an  evil  hour  for  themselves  and  their  fame,  Louis 
Philippe  and  his  minister  believed  that  they  could  obtain  a 
virtual  ownership  of  Spain  by  an  ingenious  marriage  scheme 
There  was  at  one  time  a  project  talked  of  rather  than  actually 
entertained,  of  marrying  the  young  Queen  of  Spain  and  her 
sister  to  the  Due  d'Aumale  and  the  Due  de  Montpensier,  both 
sons  01  Louis  Philippe.  But  this  would  have  been  too  daring 
a  venture  on  the  part  of  the  King  of  the  French.  Apart  from 
any  objections  to  be  entertained  by  other  States,  it  was  certain 


88         A   SHORT  fl IS  TORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.    CH.  viii, 

that  England  could  not  '  view  with  indifference,'  as  the  diplo- 
matic phrase  goes,  the  prospect  of  a  son  of  the  French  King 
occupying  the  throne  of  Spain. 

Ijouis  Philippe  knew  very  well  that  he  could  not  venture 
to  marry  one  of  his  sons  to  the  young  Isahella.  But  he  and 
his  minister  devised  a  scheme  for  securing  to  themselves  and 
their  policy  the  same  effect  in  another  way.  They  contrived 
that  the  Queen  and  her  sister  should  be  married  at  the  same 
time— the  Queen  to  her  cousin,  Don  Francisco  d'Assis,  Duke 
of  Cadiz  ;  and  her  sister  to  the  Duke  de  Montpensier,  Louis 
Philippe's  son.  There  was  reason  to  expect  tluit  the  Queen, 
if  married  to  Don  Francisco,  would  have  no  children,  and  that 
the  wife  of  Louis  Philippe's  son,  or  some  one  of  her  children, 
would  come  to  the  throne  of  Spain. 

This  scheme  proved  a  failure,  so  far  as  the  objects  of  Louis 
Philippe  and  his  minister  were  concerned.  Queen  Isabella 
had  children  ;  Montpensier' s  wife  did  not  come  to  the  throne  ; 
and  the  dynasty  of  Louis  Philippe  fell  before  long.  But  the 
friendship  between  England  and  France,  from  which  so  many 
happy  results  seemed  likely  to  come  to  Europe,  and  the  cause 
of  free  government,  was  necessarily  interrupted  for  a  time. 

The  year  1848  was  an  era  in  the  modern  history  of  Europe. 
It  was  the  year  of  unfulfilled  revolutions.  The  fall  of  the 
dynasty  of  Louis  Philippe  may  be  said  to  have  set  the  revolu- 
tionary tide  flowing. 

Louis  Philippe  fled  to  England,  and  his  flight  was  the 
signal  for  long  pent-up  flres  to  break  out  all  over  Europe. 
Pievolution  soon  was  aflame  in  nearly  all  the  capitals  of 
the  Continent.  Pievolution  is  like  an  epidemic  ;  it  flnds  out 
the  weak  places  in  systems.  The  two  European  countries 
which  being  tried  by  it  stood  it  best,  were  England  and 
Belgium.  In  the  latter  country  the  King  made  frank  appeal 
to  his  people,  and  told  them  that  if  they  wished  to  be  rid  of 
him  he  was  quite  willing  to  go.  Language  of  this  kind  w^as 
new  in  the  mouths  of  sovereigns ;  and  the  Belgians  were  a 
people  well  al)le  to  appreciate  it.  They  declared  for  their 
King  and  the  shock  of  the  revolution  passed  harmlessly  away. 
In  England  and  Ireland  the  effect  of  the  events  in  France 
was  instantly  made  manifest.  The  Chartist  agitation,  which 
had  been  much  encouraged  by  the  triumphant  return  of 
Feargus  O'Connor  for  Nottingham  at  the  general  election  of 
1847,  at  once  came  to  a  head. 

It  Wi.:s  determined  to  present  a  monster  petition  to  the 


CH.  VIII.  FAMINE  AND  POLITICAL   TROUBLE.  89 

House  of  Commons  dcmandinj:^  tlio  Cliarter,  and  in  fact  offor- 
in;^  a  last  chance  to  Parliament  to  yield  quietly  to  tJie  demand. 
The  petition  was  to  be  presented  by  a  deputation  who  were  to 
be  conducted  by  a  vast  procession  up  to  the  doors  of  the 
House.  The  procession  was  to  bo  formed  on  Kennington 
Common,  the  space  then  unenclosed  which  is  now  Kennington 
Park,  on  the  south  side  of  London.  TJiere  the  Cliartists 
were  to  bo  addressed  by  tlieir  still  trusted  leader,  F(\*irgns 
O'Connor,  and  tliey  were  to  marcli  in  milit;iry  order  to 
present  their  petition.  'J'lie  object  undou])te(lly  was  to 
make  such  a  parade  of  physical  force  as  should  overawe  the 
Legislature  and  the  Government,  and  demonstrate  the  im- 
possibility of  refusing  a  demand  baclved  by  such  a  reserve  of 
power.  The  proposed  procession  was  declared  illegjil,  and  all 
peaceful  and  loyal  subjects  were  warned  not  to  take  any  part 
\\\  it.  But  this  was  exactly  what  the  more  ardent  among  the 
Chartists  expected  and  desired  to  see. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Chartist  Convention  li(;ld  tlie  ni^'^lit 
before  the  demonstration,  a  considerable  number  were  for 
going  armed  to  Kennington  Common.  Feargus  O'Cormor 
had,  however,  sense  enough  still  left  to  throw  tlie  weiglit  of 
his  influence  against  such  an  insane  proceeding,  and  to  insist 
tluit  the  demonstration  must  show  itself  to  be,  as  it  was 
from  the  first  procdaimed  to  be,  a  strictly  pacific  proceeding 
The  more  ardent  spirits  at  once  witlidrew  from  tlie  organisa- 
tion. Those  who  might  even  at  tlie  very  last  have  done 
mischief  if  they  had  remained  part  of  the  movement,  witli- 
drew from  it;  and  Chartism  was  left  to  be  represented  by  an 
open  air  meeting  and  a  petition  to  Parliament,  like  all  the 
otlier  demonstrations  that  the  metropolis  had  seen  to  pass, 
hardly  heeded,  across  the  field  of  politics.  But  the  public  at 
large  was  not  aware  that  the  fangs  of  Chartism  had  been 
drawn  before  it  was  let  loose  to  play  on  Kennington  Common 
that  memorable  tenth  of  April.  London  awoke  in  great 
alarm  that  day.  The  wildest  rumours  were  spread  abroad  in 
many  parts  of  the  metropolis.  Long  before  the  Cliartists  had 
got  together  on  Kennington  Common  at  all,  various  remote 
quarters  of  London  were  filled  with  horrifying  reports  of  en- 
counters betw*een  the  insurgents  and  the  police  or  the  military, 
in  which  the  Chartists  invariably  had  the  better,  and  as  a 
result  of  which  they  were  marching  in  full  force  to  the 
particular  district  where  the  momentary  panic  prevailed. 
London  is  worse  off  than  most  cities  in  such  a  time  of  alarm. 


90         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,    ch.  viii. 

It  IS  too  large  for  true  accounts  of  things  rapidly  to  diffusa 
themselves.  In  April  1848,  the  street  telegraph  was  not  in 
use  for  carrying  news  through  cities,  and  the  rapidly  succeed- 
ing editions  of  the  cheap  papers  were  as  yet  unknown.  In 
various  quarters  of  London,  therefore,  the  citizen  was  left 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  day  to  all  the  agonies  of 
doubt  and  micertainty. 

There  was  no  lack,  however,  of  public  precautions  against 
an  outbreak  of  armed  Chartism.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
took  charge  of  all  the  arrangements  for  guarding  the  public 
buildings  and  defending  the  metropolis  generally.  He  acted 
with  extreme  caution,  and  told  several  intiuential  persons  that 
troops  were  in  readiness  everywhere,  but  that  they  would  not 
be  seen  unless  an  occasion  actually  rose  for  calling  on  their 
services.  The  coolness  and  presence  of  mind  of  the  stern  old 
soldier  arc  well  illustrated  in  the  fact  that  to  several  persons 
of  influence  and  authority  who  came  to  him  with  suggestions 
for  the  defence  of  this  place  or  that,  his  almost  invariable 
answer  v/as  *  Done  already,'  or  *  Done  two  hours  ago,'  or 
something  of  the  kind.  A  vast  number  of  Londoners  enrolled 
themselves  as  special  constables  for  the  maintenance  of  law 
and  order.  Nearly  two  hundred  thousand  persons,  it  is  said, 
were  sworn  in  for  this  purpose ;  and  it  will  always  be  told  as 
an  odd  incident  of  tliat  famous  scare,  that  the  Prince  Louis 
Napoleon,  then  living  in  London,  was  one  of  those  who 
volunteered  to  bear  arms  in  the  preservation  of  order.  Not  a 
long  time  was  to  pass  away  before  the  most  lawless  outrage  on 
the  order  and  life  of  a  peaceful  city  was  to  be  perpetrated  by 
the  special  command  of  the  man  who  was  so  ready  to  lend  the 
saving  aid  of  his  constable's  staff  to  protect  English  society 
against  some  poor  hundreds  or  thousands  of  English  working 
men. 

The  crisis,  however,  luckily  proved  not  to  stand  in  need  of 
such  saviours  of  society.  The  Chartist  demonstration  was  a 
wretched  failure.  The  meeting  on  Kennington  Common,  so 
far  from  being  a  gathering  of  half  a  million  of  men,  was  not 
a  larger  concourse  than  a  temperance  demonstration  had  often 
drawn  together  on  the  same  spot.  The  procession  was  not 
formed,  O'Connor  himself  strongly  insisting  on  obedience  to 
the  orders  of  the  authorities.  The  great  Chartist  petition 
itself,  which  was  to  have  made  so  profound  an  impression  on 
the  House  oi  Commons,  proved  as  utter  a  lailure  as  the 
demonstration  on  Kennington  Common.    It  was  made  certain 


CH.  VIII.         FAMINE  AND  POLITICAL    TROUBLE.  91 

that  the  number  of  genuine  signatures  was  ridiculously  below 
the  estimate  formed  by  the  Chartist  leaders  ;  and  the  agita- 
tion, after  terrifying  respectability  for  a  long  time,  suddenly 
showed  itself  a  thing  only  to  be  laughed  at. 
^v  Here  conies  not  inappropriately  to  an  end  the  history  of 

English  Chartism.  It  died  of  publicity  ;  of  exposure  to  the 
air  ;  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  ;  of  the  evident  tendency 
of  the  time  to  settle  all  questions  by  reason,  argument,  and 
majorities  ;  of  growing  education  ;  of  a  strengthening  sense  of 
duty  among  all  the  more  influential  classes.  All  that  was  sound 
in  its  claims  asserted  itself  and  was  in  time  conceded.  But 
its  active  or  aggTessive  mfluence  ceased  with  1848.  Not  since 
that  year  has  there  been  any  serious  talk  or  thought  of  any 
agitation  asserting  its. claims  by  the  use  or  even  display  of 
armed  force  in  England. 

The  spirit  of  the  time  had  meanwhile  made  itself  felt  in  a 
difierent  way  in  Ireland.  For  some  months  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  the  Young  Ireland  party  had  been  established 
as  a  rival  association  to  the  Kepealers  who  still  believed 
in  the  policy  of  O'Connell.  The  Nation  newspaper  was  con- 
ducted and  written  for  by  some  rising  young  men  of  high 
culture  and  remarkable  talent.  It  was  inspired  in  the  begm- 
nuig  by  at  least  one  genuine  poet,  Mr.  Thomas  Davis,  who 
unfortunately  died  m  his  youth.  The  Young  Ireland  party 
had  received  a  new  support  by  the  adliesion  of  Mr.  William 
Smith  O'Brien  to  their  ranks.  Mr.  O'Brien  was  a  man  of 
considerable  mfluence  in  Ireland.  He  had  a  large  property 
and  high  rank.  He  was  connected  with  or  related  to  many 
aristocratic  families.  His  brother  was  Lord  Inchiquin ;  the 
title  of  the  Marquisate  of  Thomond  was  in  the  family.  He 
w^as  undoubtedly  descended  from  the  famous  Irish  hero  and 
king  Brian  Boru,  and  was  inordinately  proud  of  his  claims  of 
long  descent.  He  had  the  highest  personal  character  and  the 
finest  sense  of  honour  ;  but  his  capacity  for  leadership  of  any 
movement  was  very  slender.  His  adhesion  to  the  cause  of  Young 
Ireland  gave  the  movement  a  decided  impulse.  His  rank,  his 
legendary  descent,  his  midoubted  chivalry  of  character  and 
purity  of  purpose  lent  a  romantic  interest  to  his  appearance  as 
the  recognised  leader,  or  at  least  the  figure-head,  of  the  Young 
Irelanders. 

Smith  O'Brien  was  a  man  01  more  mature  years  than  most 
of  his  companions  in  the  movement.  He  was  some  forty-three 
or  tour  years  of  age  when  he  took  the  leadership  of  the  move- 


9*         A   SHOKT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,    CH.  viiu 

ment.  Thomas  Francis  Meagher,  the  most  brilhant  orator  of 
the  party,  a  man  who  micler  other  conditions  might  have 
risen  to  great  distinction  in  pubhc  Hfe,  was  then  only  about 
two  or  three-and-twenty.  Mitchel  and  Dufiy,  who  were  re- 
garded as  elders  among  the  Yomig  Irelanders,  were  perhajps 
each  some  thirty  years  of  age. 

Before  the  death  of  O'Connell  the  formal  secession  of  the 
Young  Ireland  party  from  the  regular  Eepealers  had  taken 
place.  The  Continental  revolutions  of  the  year  1848  suddenly 
converted  the  movement  from  a  literary  and  poetical  organi- 
sation into  a  rebellious  conspiracy.  Tlie  fever  of  that  wild 
epoch  spread  itself  at  once  over  Ireland.  In  the  meantime  a 
fresh  and  a  stronger  influence  than  that  of  O'Brien  or  Meagher 
had  arisen  in  Young  Irelandism.  Young  Ireland  itself  now 
split  into  two  sections,  one  for  immediate  action,  the  other  for 
caution  and  delay.  The  party  of  action  acknowledged  the 
leadership  of  John  Mitchel.  The  organ  of  this  section  was 
the  newspaper  started  by  Mitchel  in  opposition  to  the  "Nation, 
which  had  grown  too  slow  for  him.  The  new  journal  was 
called  the  United  Irishman,  and  in  a  short  time  completely 
distanced  the  Nation  in  popularity  and  in  circulation.  The 
deliberate  policy  of  the  United  Irishman  was  to  force  the  hand 
first  of  the  Government  and  then  of  the  Irish  people.  Ilitchel 
had  made  up  his  mind  so  to  rouse  the  passion  of  the  jDoople  as 
to  compel  the  Government  to  take  steps  for  the  prevention  of 
rebellion  by  the  arrest  of  some  of  the  leaders.  Then  Mitchel 
calculated  upon  the  populace  rising  to  defend  or  rescue  their 
heroes— and  then  the  game  would  be  afoot;  Ireland  would 
be  entered  in  rebellion  ;  and  the  rest  would  be  for  fate  to 
decide. 

The  Government  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  better  security  of 
the  Crown  and  Government,  making  all  written  incitement  to 
insurrection  or  resistance  to  the  law,  felony  punishable 
with  transportation.  This  measure  was  passed  rapidly  through 
all  its  stages.  It  enabled  the  Government  to  suppress  news- 
papers like  the  United  Irishman,  and  to  keep  in  prison 
without  bail,  while  awaiting  trial,  anyone  charged  with  an 
offence  under  the  new  Act.  Mitchel  soon  gave  the  authorities 
an  opportunity  of  testing  the  efficacy  of  the  Act  in  his  person. 
He  repeated  his  incitements  to  insurrection,  was  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison.  The  climax  of  the  excitement  in  Ireland 
was  readied  when  Mitcliel's  trioJ  came  on.  There  can  bo 
little  doubt  that  he  was  fihed  with  a  strong  hope  tliat  Lia 


CH.  viii.  FAMINE  AND  POLITICAL    TROUBLE.  93 

followers  would  attempt  to  rescue  him.  Had  there  been 
another  Mitchel  out  of  doors,  as  fearless  and  reckless  as  the 
Mitchel  m  the  prison,  a  sanguinary  outbreak  would  probably 
have  taken  place.  But  the  leaders  of  the  movement  outside 
were  by  no  means  clear  in  their  own  minds  as  to  the  course 
they  ought  to  pursue.  They  discouraged  any  idea  of  an  attempt 
to  rescue  Mitchel.  His  trial  came  on.  He  was  found  guilty. 
He  made  a  short  but  powerful  and  impassioned  speech  from 
the  dock ;  he  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  transportation  ; 
he  w^as  hurried  under  an  escort  of  cavalry  through  the  streets 
of  Dublin,  put  on  board  a  ship  of  war,  and  in  a  few  hours 
was  on  his  way  to  Bermuda.  Dublin  remained  perfectly  quiet ; 
the  country  outside  hardly  knew  what  was  happening  until 
Mitchel  was  well  on  his  way,  and  far-seeing  persons  smiled 
to  themselves  and  said  the  danger  was  over. 

So  indeed  it  proved  to  be.  The  Government  suspended 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  Ireland,  and  issued  warrants  for 
the  arrest  of  Smith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  and  other  confederate 
leaders.  Smith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  Dillon,  and  others  left 
Dublin  and  went  dowai  into  the  country.  They  held  a  series 
of  gatherings  which  might  be  described  as  meetings  of  agita- 
tors or  marshallings  of  rebels,  according  as  one  was  pleased  to 
interpret  their  purpose.  But  this  sort  of  thing  very  soon 
drifted  into  rebellion.  The  principal  body  of  the  followers  of 
Smith  O'Brien  came  into  collision  with  the  police  at  a  place 
called  Ballingarry,  in  Tipperary.  The  police  fired  a  few  volleys. 
The  rebels  fired,  wdth  what  wretched  muskets  and  rifles  they 
possessed,  but  without  harming  a  single  policeman.  After  a 
few"  of  their  number  had  been  killed  or  wounded — it  never  w^as 
perfectly  certain  that  any  w^ere  actually  killed — the  rebel  band 
dispersed,  and  the  rebellion  was  all  over. 

Smith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  and  some  of  their  companions 
were  arrested.  The  prisoners  were  brought  for  trial  before  a 
special  commission  held  at  Clonmel,  in  Tipperary,  in  the  follow- 
ing September.  Smith  O'Brien  was  the  first  put  on  trial,  and 
w^as  found  guilty.  He  w^as  sentenced  to  death  after  the  old  form 
In  cases  of  high  treason — to  be  hanged,  beheaded,  and  quartered. 
Meagher  was  afterwards  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  death 
with  the  same  hideous  formalities.  No  one,  however,  really  be- 
lieved for  a  moment  that  such  a  sentence  was  likely  to  be  carried 
out  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  The  sentence  of  death 
was  changed  into  one  of  transportation  for  life.  The  convicts 
were  all  sent  to  Australia,  and  a  few  years  after  Meagher  coii* 


94  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR    OlViV   TIMES.    CK.  viii. 

trived  to  make  his  escape.  He  was  soon  followed  by  Mitclicl. 
Smith  O'Brien  himself  afterwards  received  a  pardon  on  con- 
dition of  his  not  retm-ning  to  these  islands  ;  but  this  condition 
was  withdrawn  after  a  time,  and  he  came  back  to  Ireland.  He 
died  quietly  in  Wales  in  1864.  Mitchel  settled  for  a  while  in 
Richmond,  Virginia,  and  became  an  ardent  advocate  of  slavery 
and  an  impassioned  champion  of  the  Southern  rebellion.  He 
returned  to  the  North  after  the  rebellion,  and  more  lately 
came  to  Ireland,  where,  owing  to  some  defect  in  the  criminal 
law,  he  could  not  be  arrested,  his  time  of  penal  servitude 
having  expired  although  he  had  not  served  it.  He  was  still  a 
hero  with  many  of  the  people  ;  he  was  put  up  as  a  candi- 
date for  an  Irish  county  and  elected.  He  was  not  allowed 
to  enter  the  House  of  Commons,  however  ;  the  election  was 
declared  void,  and  a  new  writ  was  issued.  He  was  elected 
again,  and  some  turmoil  was  expected,  when  suddenly  Mitchel, 
who  had  long  been  in  sinking  health,  was  withdrawn  from  the 
controversy  by  death.  Meagher  served  in  the  army  of  the 
Federal  States  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  showed  much  of 
the  soldier's  spirit  and  capacity.  His  end  was  premature  and 
inglorious.  He  fell  from  the  deck  of  a  steamer  one  night ;  it 
was  dark  and  there  was  a  strong  current  running  ;  help  came 
too  late.  A  ialse  step,  a  dark  night,  and  the  muddy  waters  of 
the  Missouri  closed  the  career  that  had  opened  with  so  much 
promise  of  brightness. 

Many  of  the  conspicuous  Young  Irelanders  rose  to  some 
distinction.  Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  the  editor  of  the  Nation^ 
Mho  was  twice  put  on  his  trial  after  the  failure  of  the  insur- 
rection, but  whom  a  jury  would  not  on  either  occasion  convict, 
became  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  afterwards 
emigrated  to  the  colony  of  Victoria.  He  rose  to  be  Prime 
Minister  there,  and  received  knighthood  from  the  Crown,  and 
a  pension  irom  the  Colonial  Parliament.  Thomas  Darcy 
M'Gee,  another  prominent  rebel,  went  to  the  United  States, 
and  thence  to  Canada,  where  he  rose  to  be  a  minister  of 
the  Crown.  He  was  one  of  the  most  loyal  supporters  of  the 
British  connection.  His  untimely  death  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin  was  lamented  in  England  as  well  as  in  the  colony  he 
had  served  so  well. 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS,    ROME  AND  LONDON.  95 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

ATHENS,  ROME  AND  LONDON. 

The  name  of  Don  Pacifico  was  familiar  to  the  world  some 
quarter  of  a  centm-y  ago  as  that  of  the  man  whose  quarrel  had 
nearly  brought  on  a  European  war,  had  caused  a  temporary  dis- 
turbance of  good  relations  between  England  and  France,  split 
up  political  parties  in  England  in  a  manner  liardly  ever  known 
before,  and  established  the  reputation  of  Lord  Palmerston  as 
one  of  the  greatest  Parliamentary  debaters  of  his  time. 

Don  Pacifico  was  a  Jew,  a  Portuguese  by  extraction,  but  a 
native  of  Gibraltar  and  a  British  subject  living  in  Athens.  It 
had  been  customary  in  Greek  towns  to  celebrate  Easter  by 
burning  an  effigy  of  Judas  Iscariot.  In  1847  the  police  of 
Athens  were  ordered  to  prevent  this  performance,  and  the  mob, 
disappointed  oi  their  favourite  amusement,  ascribed  the  new 
orders  to  the  influence  of  the  Jews.  Don  Pacifico's  house 
happened  to  stand  near  the  spot  where  the  Judas  was  annually 
burnt ;  Don  Pacifico  was  known  to  be  a  Jew  ;  and  the  anger 
of  the  mob  was  wreaked  upon  him  accordingly.  Don  Pacifico 
made  a  claim  against  the  Greek  Government  for  compensation 
for  nearly  thirty- two  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Another  claim 
was  made  at  the  same  time  by  another  British  subject,  a  man  of 
a  very  different  stamp  from  Don  Pacifico.  This  was  Mr.  Finlay, 
the  historian  of  Greece.  Mr.  Finlay  had  settled  in  Athens  when 
the  independence  of  Greece  had  been  established.  Some  of  his 
land  had  been  taken  for  the  purpose  of  rounding  off  the  new 
palace  gardens  oi  King  Otho  ;  and  Mr.  Finlay  had  declined  to 
accept  the  terms  offered  by  the  Greek  Government,  to  which 
other  landowners  in  the  same  position  as  himself  had  assented. 

None  of  these  questions  would  seem  at  first  sight  to  wear 
a  very  grave  international  character.  Unluckily  Lord  Palmer- 
ston became  possessed  with  the  idea  that  the  French  minister 
in  Greece  was  secretly  setting  the  Greek  Government  on  to 
resist  our  claims.  For  the  Foreign  Office  had  made  the 
claims  ours,  and  insisted  that  Greece  must  pay  up  within 
a  given  time  or  take  the  consequences.  Greece  hesitated,  and 
accordingly  the  British  fleet  was  sent  to  the  Piraeus,  and  seized 
all  the  Greek  vessels  belonging  t<^  the  Government  and  to 
private  merchants  that  were  fomid  within  the  waters, 


96  A   SHORl^  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  ix. 

The  Greek  Government  appealed  to  France  and  Eussia  as 
powers  joined  with  us  in  the  treaty  to  protect  the  independence 
of  Greece.  France  and  Russia  were  both  disposed  to  make 
bitter  complaint  of  not  having  been  consulted  in  the  first  instance 
by  the  British  Government ;  nor  was  their  feeling  greatly  softened 
by  Lord  Palmerston's  peremptory  reply  that  it  was  all  a  ques- 
tion between  England  and  Greece,  with  which  no  other  power 
had  any  business  to  interfere.  At  last  something  like  a  friendly 
arbitration  was  accepted  from  France,  and  the  French  Govern- 
ment sent  a  special  representative  to  Athens  to  try  to  come  to 
terms  with  our  minister  there.  The  difficulties  appeared  likely 
to  be  adjusted.  But  some  spirit  of  mischief  seemed  to  have 
this  unlucky  aff'air  in  charge  from  the  first.  A  new  quarrel 
threatened  at  one  time  to  break  out  between  England  and 
France.  The  French  Government  actually  withdrew  their  am- 
bassador, M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys,  from  London  ;  and  there  was 
for  a  short  time  a  general  alarm  over  Europe.  But  after  a  while 
our  Government  gave  way,  and  agreed  to  an  arrangement  which 
was  in  the  main  all  that  France  desired.'  When,  after  a  long 
lapse  of  time,  the  arbitrators  came  to  settle  the  claims  of  Don 
Pacifico,  it  was  found  that  he  was  entitled  to  about  one-thirtieth 
of  the  sum  he  had  originally  demanded.  Don  Pacifico,  it  seems, 
charged  in  his  bill  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling  for  a 
bedstead,  thirty  pounds  for  the  sheets  of  the  bed,  twenty-five 
pounds  for  tw^o  coverlets,  and  ten  pounds  for  a  pillow-case.  The 
jewellery  of  his  wife  and  daughters  he  estimated  at  tw^o  thou- 
sand ]oounds.  It  seems  too  that  he  had  always  lived  in  a  humble 
sort  of  way,  and  was  never  supposed  by  his  neighbours  to  possess 
such  splendour  of  ornament  and  household  goods. 

While  the  controversy  between  the  English  and  French 
Governments  was  yet  unfinished.  Lord  Stanley  proposed  in 
the  House  of  Lords  a  resolution  which  was  practically  a 
vote  of  censure  on  the  Government.  The  resolution  was 
carried,  after  a  debate  of  great  spirit  and  energy,  by  a 
majority  of  thirty- seven.  Lord  Palmerston  was  not  dis- 
mayed. A  Ministry  is  seldom  greatly  troubled  by  an  adverse 
vote  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Still  it  v>^as  necessary  that 
something  should  be  done  in  the  Commons  to  counterbalance 
the  stroke  of  the  Lords,  and  accordingly  Mr.  Roebuck,  acting 
as  an  independent  member,  although  on  this  occasion  in 
harmony  witli  tlie  Government,  brought  forward  on  June  24, 
1850,  a  resolution  which  l)oldly  affirmed  that  the  principles 
on  which    the   foreign  policy  of  the  Government  had  been 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS,   ROME,   AND  LONDON.  97 

regulated  were  *  such  as  were  calculated  to  maintain  the 
honour  and  dignity  of  this  country ;  and  in  times  of  un- 
exampled difficulty  to  preserve  peace  between  England  and 
the  various  nations  of  the  world.' 

Among  those  who  condemned  the  policy  of  Lord  Palmerston 
were  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Cobden,  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  Sir  William 
Molesworth,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  in  the  Commons.  In 
the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  Brougham,  Lord  Canning,  and 
Lord  Aberdeen  had  supported  the  resolution  of  Lord  Stanley. 
The  principal  interest  of  the  debate  now  rests  in  the  manner 
of  Lord  Palmerston' s  defence.  That  speech  was  indeed  a 
masterpiece  of  Parliamentary  argument  and  address.  Lord 
Palmerston  really  made  it  appear  as  if  the  question  between 
him  and  his  opponents  was  that  of  the  protection  of  English- 
men abroad  ;  as  if  he  were  anxious  to  look  after  their  lives  and 
safety,  while  his  opponents  were  urging  the  odious  principle 
that  when  once  an  Englishman  put  his  foot  on  a  foreign  shore 
his  own  Government  renounced  all  intent  to  concern  them- 
selves with  any  fate  that  might  befall  him.  Li  a  peroration  of 
thrilling  power  Lord  Palmerston  asked  for  the  verdict  of  the 
House  to  decide  '  whether,  as  the  Eoman  in  days  of  old  held 
himself  free  from  indignity  when  he  could  say  "I  am  a  Eoman 
citizen,"  so  also  a  British  subject,  in  whatever  land  he  may 
be,  shall  feel  confident  that  the  watchful  eye  and  the  strong 
arm  of  England  will  protect  him  against  injustice  and  wrong.' 
When  Lord  Palmerston  closed  his  speech  the  overwhelming 
plaudits  of  the  House  foretold  the  victory  he  had  won.  It  was 
indeed  a  masterpiece  of  telling  defence.  The  speech  occupied 
some  five  hours  in  delivery.  It  was  spoken,  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
afterwards  said,  from  the  dusk  of  one  day  to  the  dawn  of  the 
next.     It  was  spoken  without  the  help  of  a  single  note. 

After  a  debate  of  four  nights,  a  majority  of  forty- six  was 
given  for  the  resolution.  The  Ministry  came  out  not  only 
absolved  but  triumphant.  The  odd  thing  about  the  whole 
proceeding  is  that  the  ministers  in  general  heartily  disapproved 
of  the  sort  of  policy  which  Palmerston  defended  so  eloquently 
and  put  so  energetically  into  action — at  least  they  disapproved, 
if  not  his  principles,  yet  certainly  his  way  of  enforcing  them. 
Of  many  fine  speeches  made  during  this  brilliant  debate  we 
must  notice  one  in  particular.  It  was  that  of  Mr.  Cockburn, 
then  member  for  Southampton.  Never  in  our  time  has  a  repu- 
tation been  more  suddenly,  completely,  and  deservedly  made 
than  Mr.  Cockburn  won  by  his  brilliant  display  of  ingenious 

5 


98  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  ix. 

argument  and  stirring  words.  The  manner  of  the  speaker  lent 
additional  effect  to  his  clever  and  captivating  eloquence.  He 
had  a  clear,  sweet,  penetrating  voice,  a  fluency  that  seemed  so 
easy  as  to  make  listeners  sometimes  fancy  that  it  ought  to  cost 
no  effort,  and  a  grace  of  gesture  such  as  it  must  be  owned  the 
courts  of  law  where  he  had  had  his  training  do  not  often  teach. 
Mr.  Cockburn  defended  the  policy  of  Palmerston  with  an  effect 
only  inferior  to  that  produced  by  Palmerston's  own  speech, 
and  with  a  rhetorical  grace  and  finish  to  which  Palmerston 
made  no  pretension.  Mr.  Cockburn' s  career  was  safe  from 
that  hour.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  well  upheld  in  after 
years  the  reputation  he  won  in  a  night.  The  brilliant  and 
sudden  success  of  the  member  for  Southampton  was  but  the 
fitting  prelude  to  the  abiding  distinction  won  by  the  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England. 

One  association  of .  profound  melancholy  clings  to  that 
great  debate.  The  speech  delivered  by  Sir  Eobert  Peel  was 
the  last  that  was  destined  to  come  from  his  lips.  The  debate 
closed  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  June  29.  It  was  nearly 
four  o'clock  when  the  division  was  taken,  and  Peel  left  the 
House  as  the  sunlight  was  already  beginning  to  stream  into 
corridors  and  lobbies.  He  went  home  to  rest ;  but  his  sleep 
could  not  be  long.  He  had  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Eoyal 
Commissioners  of  the  Great  Industrial  Exhibition  at  twelve. 
He  returned  home  for  a  short  time  after  the  meeting,  and 
then  set  out  for  a  ride  in  the  Park.  He  called  at  Buckingham 
Palace  and  wrote  his  name  in  the  Queen's  visiting-book.  Then 
as  he  was  riding  up  Constitution  Hill  he  stopped  to  talk  to  a 
young  lady,  a  friend  of  his,  who  was  also  riding.  His  horse 
suddenly  shied  and  flung  him  off ;  and  Peel  clinging  to  the 
bridle,  the  animal  fell  with  its  knees  on  his  shoulders.  The 
injuries  whicli  he  received  proved  beyond  all  skill  of  surgery. 
He  lingered,  now  conscious,  now  delirious  with  pain,  for  two 
or  three  days  ;  and  he  died  about  eleven  o'clock  on  the  night 
of  July  2.  Most  of  the  members  of  his  family  and  some  of 
his  dearest  old  friends  and  companions  in  political  arms  were 
beside  him  when  he  died.  The  tears  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton in  one  House  of  Parliament,  and  the  eloquence  of  Mr. 
Gladstone  in  the  other,  were  expressions  as  fitting  and  adequate 
as  might  be  of  the  universal  feeling  of  the  nation. 

Peel  seemed  destined  for  great  things  yet  when  he  died. 
He  was  but  in  his  sixty-third  year ;  he  was  some  years  younger 
than  Lord  Palmerston,  who  may  be  said  without  cxaggcratioii 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS,   ROME,   AND  LONDON.  99 

to  have  just  achieved  his  first  great  success.  Many  circum- 
stances were  pointing  to  Peel  as  hkely  before  long  to  be  sum- 
moned again  to  the  leadership  in  the  government  of  the  country. 
It  is  superfluous  to  say  that  his  faculties  as  Parliamentary 
orator  or  statesman  were  not  showing  any  signs  of  decay.  An 
Enghsh  public  man  is  not  supposed  to  show  signs  of  decaying 
faculties  at  sixty-two.  The  shying  horse  and  perhaps  the  bad 
ridership  settled  the  question  of  Peel's  career  between  them. 

To  the  same  year  belongs  the  close  of  another  remarkable 
career.  On  August  26,  1850,  Louis  Philippe,  lately  King  of 
the  French,  died  at  Claremont,  the  guest  of  England.  Few 
men  in  history  had  gone  through  greater  reverses.  He  had 
been  soldier,  exile,  college  teacher,  wanderer  among  American- 
Indian  tribes,  resident  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  Bloomingdale 
in  the  New  York  suburbs,  and  King  of  the  French.  He 
died  in  exile  among  us,  a  clever,  unwise,  grand,  mean  old 
man.  There  was  a  great  deal  about  him  which  made  him 
respected  in  private  life,  and  when  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  state  intrigues  antl  the  foreign  policy  of  courts.  He 
was  much  liked  in  England,  where  after  his  sons  lived  for 
many  years.  But  there  were  Englishmen  who  did  not  like  him 
and  did  not  readily  forgive  him.  One  of  these  was  Lord 
Palmerston.  Louis  Philippe  always  detested  Lord  Palmer-, 
ston.  Lord  Palmerston  wrote  to  bis  brother  a  few  days  after 
the  death  of  Louis  Philippe,  expressing  his  sentiments  there- 
upon with  the  utmost  directness.  '  The  death  of  Louis 
Philippe,'  he  said,  '  delivers  me  from  my  most  artful  and 
inveterate  enemy,  whose  position  gave  him  in  many  ways  the 
power  to  injure  me.' 

The  autumn  of  1850  and  the  greater  part  of  1851  were  dis- 
turbed by  a  sharp  and  embittered  struggle  with  the  Papal 
court.  The  movement  among  some  scholarly,  mystical  men 
in  England  towards  the  Eoman  Church  had  made  a  profound 
impression  in  Kome.  To  the  eyes  of  Papal  enthusiasm  the 
whole  English  nation  was  only  waiting  for  some  word  in  sea- 
son to  return  to  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  Piome.  A  Papal 
bull,  '  given  at  St.  Peter's,  Eome,  mider  the  seal  of  the  fisher- 
man,' directed  the  establishment  in  England  '  of  a  hierarchy 
of  bishops  deriving  their  titles  from  their  own  sees,  which  we 
constitute  by  the  present  letter  in  the  various  apostolic  districts.' 
There  always  were  Catholic  bishops  in  England.  There  were 
Catholic  archbishops.  They  were  free  to  go  and  come,  to 
preach  and  teach  as  they  liked ;  to  dress  as  they  liked ;  for  all 


loo         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  IX. 

that  nineteen  out  of  every  twenty  Englishmen  cared,  they 
might  have  been  also  free  to  call  themselves  what  they  liked. 
The  anger  was  not  against  the  giving  of  the  new  titles,  but 
against  the  assumption  of  a  new  right  to  give  titles  represent- 
ing territorial  distinctions  in  this  country ;  against  the  Pope's 
evident  assumption  that  the  change  he  was  making  was  the 
natural  result  of  an  actual  change  in  the  national  feeling  of 
England.  The  Pope  had  divided  England  into  various 
dioceses,  which  he  placed  under  the  control  of  an  archbishop 
and  twelve  suffragans  ;  and  the  new  archbishop  was  Cardinal 
Wiseman.  Under  the  title  of  Archbishop  of  Westminster  and 
Administrator  Apostolic  of  the  Diocese  of  Southwark,  Cardi- 
nal Wiseman  was  now  to  reside  in  London.  Cardinal  Wise- 
man was  already  well  known  in  England.  He  was  of  Eng- 
lish descent  on  his  father's  side  and  of  Irish  on  his  mother's ; 
he  was  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  and  a  Pioman  by  education.  His 
family  on  both  sides  was  of  good  position  ;  his  father  came  of 
a  long  line  of  Essex  gentry.  Wiseman  had  held  the  professor- 
ship of  Oriental  languages  in  the  English  College  at  Eome, 
and  afterwards  became  rector  of  the  college.  In  1840  he  was 
appointed  by  the  Pope  one  of  the  Vicars  Apostolic  in  England, 
and  held  his  position  here  as  Bishop  of  Melipotamus  in  parti- 
■  6w,9  injidelium.  He  was  well  known  to  be  a  fine  scholar,  an 
accomplished  linguist,  and  a  powerful  preacher  and  controver- 
sialist. But  he  was  believed  also  to  be  a  man  of  great  ecclesias- 
tical ambition — ambition  for  his  Church,  that  is  to  say — of 
singular  boldness,  and  of  much  political  ability.  The  Pope's 
action  was  set  down  as  in  great  measure  the  work  of  Wiseman. 
The  Cardinal  himself  was  accepted  in  the  minds  of  most  Eng- 
lishmen as  a  type  of  the  regular  Italian  ecclesiastic — bold, 
clever,  ambitious,  and  unscrupulous.  The  very  fact  of  his  Eng- 
lish extraction  only  militated  the  more  against  him  in  the  j)ublic 
feeling.  He  was  regarded  as  in  some  sense  one  who  had  gone 
over  to  the  enemy,  and  wdio  was  the  more  to  be  dreaded  be- 
cause of  the  knowledge  he  carried  with  him.  The  first  step 
taken  by  Cardinal  Wiseman  did  not  tend  to  charm  away  this 
feeling.  He  issued  a  pastoral  letter,  addressed  to  England,  on 
October  7,  1850,  which  was  set  forth  as  'given  out  of  the 
Flaminian  Gate  of  Rome.'  This  description  of  the  letter  was 
afterwards  stated  to  be  in  accordance  with  one  of  tlie  neces- 
sary formularies  of  the  Church  of  Eome ;  but  it  w^as  then 
assumed  in  England  to  be  an  expression  of  insolence  and 
audacity  intended  to  remind  the  English  people  that  from  out 


»     *    > 

-3      t        ■)       -) 


CH.  IX.  ATI/EATS,    ROME,   AND   LONDON-  loi 

of  Eome  itself  came  the  a^beitioii^of  rfiipi'en'ia'cy  6t§r  mem. 
This  letter  was  to  be  read  publicly  in  all  the  Roman  Catholic 
churches  in  London.  It  addressed  itself  directly  to  the  Eng- 
lish people,  and  it  announced  that  *  your  beloved  country  has 
received  a  place  among  the  fair  churches  which  normally  con- 
stituted form  the  splendid  aggregate  of  Catholic  communion  ; 
Catholic  England  has  been  restored  to  its  orbit  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical firmament  from  which  its  light  had  long  vanished ;  and 
begins  now  anew  its  course  of  regularly-adjusted  action  round 
the  centre  of  unity,  the  source  of  jurisdiction,  of  light,  and  oi 


vigour 


The  letter  had  hardly  reached  England  wlien  the  country 
was  aroused  by  another  letter  coming  from  a  very  different 
quarter,  and  intended  as  a  counterblast  to  the  Papal  assump- 
tion of  authoritv.  This  was  Lord  John  Eussell's  famous  Dur- 
ham  letter.  The  letter  was  in  reply  to  one  from  the  Bishop 
of  Durham,  and  was  dated  '  Downing  Street,  November  4.' 
Lord  John  Russell  condemned  in  the  most  unmeasured  terms 
the  assumption  of  the  Pope  as  '  a  pretension  of  supremacy 
over  the  realm  of  England,  and  a  claim  to  sole  and  undivided 
sway,  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  Queen's  supremacy,  with 
the  rights  of  our  bishops  and  clergy,  and  with  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  nation  as  asserted  even  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  times.'  But  Lord  John  Russell  went  further  than  all 
this.  He  declared  that  there  was  a  danger  that  alarmed  him 
more  than  any  aggression  from  a  foreign  sovereign,  and  that 
was  '  the  danger  within  the  gates  from  the  unworthy  sons  of  the 
Church  of  England  herself.'  The  Catholics  looked  upon  the 
letter  as  a  declaration  of  war  against  Catholicism ;  the  fana 
ticalof  the  other  side  welcomed  it  as  a  trumpet-call  to  a  new 
*  No  Popery  '  agitation. 

The  very  day  after  the  letter  appeared  was  the  Guy  Faux 
anniversary.  All  over  the  country  the  effigies  of  the  Pope 
and  Cardinal  Wiseman  took  the  place  of  the  regulation  '  Guy,' 
and  were  paraded  and  burnt  amid  tumultuous  demonstrations. 
Mr.  Disraeli  endeavoured  at  once  to  foment  the  prevailing  heat 
of  public  temper  and  at  the  same  time  to  direct  its  fervour 
against  the  Ministry  themselves,  by  declaring  in  a  published 
letter  that  he  could  hardly  blame  the  Pope  for  supposing  him- 
self at  liberty  to  divide  England  into  bishoprics,  seeing  the 
encouragement  he  had  got  from  the  ministers  themselves  _  by 
the  recognition  they  had  offered  to  the  Roman  Cathohc_  hier- 
archy of  Ireland.     As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  not  the  existing 


102        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  IX 

Government  tLau  I'lacl  recognised"  the  rank  of  the  Irish  Catho- 
lic prelates.  The  recognition  had  been  formally  arranged  in 
January  1845  by  a  royal  warrant  or  commission  for  carrying 
out  the  Charitable  Bequests  Act,  which  gave  the  Irish  Catho- 
lic prelates  rank  immediately  after  the  prelates  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  the  same  degree.  But  the  letter  of  Mr. 
Disraeli,  like  that  of  Lord  John  Kussell,  served  to  inflame 
passions  on  both  sides,  and  to  put  the  country  in  the  worst 
possible  mood  for  any  manner  of  wholesome  legislation. 
Never  during  the  same  generation  had  there  been  such  an  out- 
burst of  anger  on  both  sides  of  the  religious  controversy.  It 
was  a  curious  incident  in  political  history  that  Lord  John 
Piussell,  who  had  more  than  any  Englishman  then  living  been 
identified  with  the  principles  of  religious  liberty,  who  had  sat 
at  the  feet  of  Fox,  and  had  for  his  closest  friend  the  Catholic 
poet  Thomas  Moore,  came  to  be  regarded  byEoman  Catholics 
as  the  bitterest  enemy  of  their  creed  and  their  rights  of  worship. 
The  opening  of  Parliament  came  on  February  4,  1851. 
The  Ministry  had  to  do  something.  No  Ministry  that  ever 
held  power  in  England  could  have  attempted  to  meet  the 
House  of  Commons  without  some  project  of  a  measure  to  allay 
the  intense  excitement  which  prevailed  throughout  the  country. 
Two  or  three  days  after  the  meeting  of  Parliament  Lord  John 
Eussell  introduced  his  bill  to  prevent  the  assumption  by 
Pioman  Catholics  of  titles  taken  from  any  territory  or  place 
within  the  United  Kingdom.  The  measure  proposed  to  pro- 
hibit the  use  of  all  such  titles  under  penalty,  and  to  render 
void  all  acts  done  by  or  bequests  made  to  persons  under  such 
titles.  The  Roman  Catholic  Relief  Act  imposed  a  penalty  of 
one  hundred  pounds  for  every  assumxption  of  a  title  taken  from 
an  existing  see.  Lord  John  Russell  proposed  now  to  extend 
the  penalty  to  the  assumption  of  any  title  whatever  from  any 
place  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  reception  which  was 
given  to  Lord  John  Russell's  motion  for  leave  to  bring  in  this 
bill  was  not  encouraging.  Usually  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  is 
granted  as  a  matter  of  course.  Some  few  general  observations 
of  extemporaneous  and  guarded  criticism  are  often  made  ;  but 
the  common  practice  is  to  offer  no  opposition.  On  this  occa- 
sion, liowever,  the  debate  on  the  motion  for  leave  to  bring  in 
the  bill  was  renewed  for  night  after  night,  and  the  fullest 
promise  of  an  angry  and  prolonged  resistance  was  given.  The 
opponents  of  the  measure  had  on  their  side  not  only  all  the 
prominent   champions   of  religious    liberty   like    Sir    Jamea 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS,    ROME,   AND  LONDON;  103 

Graham,  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Cobden,  and  Mr.  Bright ;  but 
also  Protestant  politicians  of  such  devotion  to  the  interests  of 
the  Church  as  Mr.  Koundell  Palmer,  afterwards  Lord  Selborne, 
and  Mr.  Beresford  Hope ;  and  of  course  they  had  with  them 
all  the  Irish  Catholic  members.  Mr.  Eoebuck  described  the 
bill  as  '  one  of  the  meanest,  pettiest,  and  most  futile  measures 
that  ever  disgraced  even  bigotry  itself.'  Mr.  Bright  called  it 
*  little,  paltry,  and  miserable — a  mere  sham  to  bolster  up 
Church  ascendency.'  Mr.  Disraeli  declared  that  he  would 
not  oppose  the  introduction  of  the  bill ;  but  he  spoke  of  it  in 
language  of  as  much  contempt  as  Mr.  Eoebuck  and  Mr.  Bright 
had  used,  calling  it  a  mere  piece  of  petty  persecution.  Sir 
Eobert  Inglis,  on  the  part  of  the  more  extreme  Protestants, 
objected  to  the  bill  on  the  gromid  that  it  did  not  go  far  enough. 
Yet  so  strong  was  the  feeling  in  favour  of  some  legislation,  that 
when  the  division  was  taken,  three  hundi'ed  and  ninety-five 
votes  were  given  for  the  motion,  and  only  sixty-three  against  it. 

It  was  interrupted  at  one  stage  by  events  which  had  nothing 
to  do  with  its  history.  The  Government  got  mto  trouble  of 
another  kind.  Mr.  Locke  King,  member  for  East  Surrey, 
asked  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  assimilate  the  county 
franchise  to  that  existing  in  boroughs.  Lord  John  Eussell 
opposed  the  motion,  and  the  Government  were  defeated  by 
100  votes  against  52.  It  was  evident  that  this  was  only  what 
is  called  a  '  snap  '  vote  ;  that  the  House  was  taken  by  surprise, 
and  that  the  result  in  no  wise  represented  the  general  feeling 
of  Parliament.  But  still  it  was  a  vexatious  occurrence  for  the 
Ministry.  Their  budget  had  already  been  received  with  very 
general  marks  of  dissatisfaction.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer only  proposed  a  partial  and  qualified  repeal  of  the 
window  tax,  an  impost  which  was  justly  detested,  and  he 
continued  the  income  tax.  Under  these  circumstances  Lord 
John  Eussell  felt  that  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  tender  his 
resignation  to  the  Queen.  Leaving  his  Ecclesiastical  Titles 
Bill  suspended  in  air,  he  announced  that  he  could  no  longer 
think  of  carrying  on  the  government  of  the  country. 

The  question  was  who  should  succeed  him.  The  Queen 
sent  for  Lord  Stanley,  afterwards  Lord  Derby.  Lord  Stanley 
offered  to  do  his  best  to  form  a  Government,  but  he  tried  with- 
out hope,  and  of  course  he  was  unsuccessful.  The  position 
of  parties  was  very  peculiar.  It  was  impossible  to  form  any 
combination  which  could  really  agree  upon  anything.  There 
were  three  parties  out  of  which  a  Ministry  might  be  formed. 


I04        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.      CH.  ix, 

These  were  the  Whigs,  the  Conservatives,  and  the  PeeHtes. 
The  Peehtes  were  a  very  rising  and  promising  body  of  men. 
Among  them  were  Sir  James  Graham,  Lord  Canning,  Mr. 
Gladstone,  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert,  Mr.  Cardwell,  and  some 
others  almost  equally  well  known.  Only  these  three  groups 
were  fairly  in  the  competition  for  office ;  for  the  idea  of  a 
Ministry  of  Kadicals  and  Manchester  men  was  not  then  likely 
to  present  itself  to  any  official  mind.  But  how  could  anyone 
put  together  a  Ministry  formed  from  a  combination  of  these 
three  ?  The  Peelites  would  not  coalesce  with  the  Tories  be- 
cause of  the  Protection  question,  and  because  of  Lord  Stanley's 
own  declaration  that  he  still  regarded  the  policy  of  Free 
Trade  as  only  an  experiment.  The  Peelites  would  not  com- 
bine with  the  Whigs  because  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill. 
The  Conservatives  would  not  disavow  protective  ideas  ;  the 
Whigs  would  not  give  up  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill.  No 
statesman,  therefore,  could  form  a  Government  without  having 
to  count  on  two  great  parties  being  against  him  on  one  question 
or  the  other.  There  was  nothing  better  to  be  done  than  to 
ask  the  ministers  who  had  resigned  to  resume  their  peaces  and 
muddle  on  as  they  best  could.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that 
there  was  nothing  better  to  be  done :  there  was  nothing  else 
to  be  done.  They  were  at  all  events  still  administering  the 
affairs  of  the  country,  and  no  one  would  relieve  them  of  the  task. 
So  the  ministers  returned  to  their  places  and  resumed  the 
Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill. 

The  Government  at  first,  as  we  have  seen,  resolved  to 
impose  a  penalty  on  the  assumption  of  ecclesiastical  titles 
by  Eoman  Catholic  prelates  from  places  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  to  make  null  and  void  all  acts  done  or  bequests  made  in 
virtue  of  such  titles.  But  they  found  that  it  would  be  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  apply  such  legislation  in  Ireland.  In  that 
country  a  Catholic  hierarchy  had  long  been  tolerated,  and  all 
the  functions  of  a  regular  hierarchy  had  been  in  full  and 
formal  operation.  To  apply  the  new  measure  to  Ireland  would 
have  been  virtually  to  repeal  the  Eoman  Catholic  Pielief  Act 
and  restore  tlic  penal  laws.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ministers 
were  not  willing  to  make  one  law  against  titles  for  England 
and  another  for  Ireland.  They  were  driven,  therefore,  to  the 
course  of  withdrawing  two  of  the  stringent  clauses  of  the 
bill,  and  leaving  it  little  more  than  a  mere  declaration  against 
the  assumption  of  unlawful  titles.  But  by  doing  this  they 
furnished  stronger  reasons  for  opposition  to  both  of  the  two 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS,    ROME,   AND  LONDON.  105 

very  different  parties  who  had  hitherto  denounced  their  way 
of  deahng  with  the  crisis.  Those  who  thought  the  bill  did 
not  go  far  enough  before  were  of  course  indignant  at  the 
proposal  to  shear  it  of  whatever  little  force  it  had  originally 
possessed.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  who  had  opposed  it  as  a 
breach  of  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  could  now  ridicule 
it  with  all  the  greater  effect  on  the  ground  that  it  violated  a 
principle  without  even  the  pretext  of  doing  any  practical  good 
as  a  compensation. 

The  debates  were  long,  fierce,  and  often  passionate.  The 
bill  was  wrangled  over  until  the  end  of  June,  and  then  a 
large  number,  some  seventy,  of  the  Irish  Catholic  members 
publicly  seceded  from  the  discussion  and  announced  that  they 
would  take  no  further  part  in  the  divisions.  On  this  some  of 
the  strongest  opponents  of  the  Papal  aggression,  led  by  Sir 
Frederick  Thesiger,  afterwards  Lord  Chelmsford,  brought  in 
and  carried  a  series  of  resolutions  intended  to  make  the  bill 
more  stringent  than  it  had  been  even  as  originally  introduced. 
The  object  of  the  resolutions  was  principally  to  give  the  power 
of  prosecuting  and  claiming  a  penalty  to  anybody,  provided  he 
obtained  the  consent  of  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown,  and 
to  make  penal  the  introduction  of  bulls.  When  the  measure 
came  on  for  a  third  reading.  Lord  John  Eussell  moved  the 
omission  of  the  added  clauses,  but  he  was  defeated  by  large 
majorities.  The  bill  was  done  with  so  far  as  the  House  of 
Commons  was  concerned.  After  an  eloquent  and  powerful 
protest  from  Mr.  Gladstone  against  the  measure,  as  one  dis- 
paraging to  the  great  principle  of  religious  freedom,  the  bill 
was  read  a  third  time.  It  went  up  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
was  passed  there  without  alteration  although  not  without 
opposition,  and  soon  after  received  the  Eoyal  assent. 

This  was  practically  the  last  the  world  heard  about  it. 
Li  the  Koman  Church  everything  went  on  as  before.  The 
new  Cardinal  Archbishop  still  called  himself  Archbishop  of 
Westminster  ;  some  of  the  Irish  prelates  made  a  point  of 
ostentatiously  using  their  territorial  titles  in  letters  addressed 
to  the  ministers  themselves.  The  bitterness  of  feeling  which 
the  Papal  aggression  and  the  legislation  against  it  had  called 
up  did  not  indeed  pass  away  very  soon.  It  broke  out  again 
and  again,  sometimes  in  the  form  of  very  serious  riot.  But 
England  was  not  restored  to  the  communion  of  the  Pioman 
Catholic  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles 
Act  was  never  put  in  force.  Nobody  troubled  about  it.  Many 
5-  -^  -^         -   -- 


io6        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     CH.  IX. 

years  after,  in  1871,  it  was  quietly  repealed.  It  died  in  such 
obscarity  that  the  outer  public  hardly  knew  whether  it  was 
above  ground  or  below. 

The  first  of  May,  1851,  will  always  be  memorable  as  the  day 
on  which  the  Great  Exhibition  was  opened  in  Hyde  Park. 
Golden  indeed  were  the  expectations  with  which  hopeful 
people  welcomed  that  historic  Exhibition.  It  was  the  first 
organised  to  gather  all  the  representatives  of  the  world's 
industry  into  one  great  fair ;  and  there  were  those  who 
seriously  expected  that  men  who  had  once  been  prevailed 
upon  to  meet  together  in  friendly  and  peaceful  rivalry  would 
never  again  be  persuaded  to  meet  in  rivalry  of  a  fiercer  kind. 
The  Hyde  Park  Exhibition  was  often  described  as  the  festival 
to  open  the  long  reign  of  Peace.  It  might  as  a  mere  matter 
of  chronology  be  called  without  any  impropriety  the  festival 
to  celebrate  the  close  of  the  short  reign  of  Peace.  From  that 
year,  1851,  it  may  be  said  fairly  enough  that  the  world  has 
hardly  known  a  week  of  peace.  The  coiij)  d'etat  in  France 
closed  the  year.  The  Crimean  War  began  almost  immediately 
after  and  was  followed  by  the  Indian  Mutiny,  and  that  by  the 
war  between  France  and  Austria,  the  long  civil  war  in  the 
United  States,  the  Neapolitan  enterprises  of  Garibaldi,  and 
the  Mexican  intervention,  until  we  come  to  the  war  between 
Austria,  Prussia,  and  Denmark ;  the  short  sharp  struggle  for 
German  supremacy  between  Austria  and  Prussia,  the  war 
between  France  and  Germany,  the  war  between  Russia  and 
Turkey,  and  our  own  various  Asiatic  and  African  wars.  Such 
were,  in  brief  summary,  the  events  that  quickly  followed  the 
great  inaugurating  Festival  of  Peace  in  1851. 

The  first  idea  of  the  Exhibition  was  conceived  by  Prince 
Albert ;  and  it  was  his  energy  and  influence  which  succeeded 
in  carrying  the  idea  into  practical  execution.  Prince  Albert 
was  President  of  the  Society  of  Arts,  and  this  position  secured 
him  a  platform  for  the  effective  promulgation  of  his  ideas.  On 
June  30,  IH-IO,  he  called  a  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Arts  at 
Buckingham  Palace.  He  proposed  that  the  Society  should 
undertake  the  initiative  in  the  promotion  of  an  exhibition  of 
the  works  of  all  nations.  The  idea  was  at  once  taken  up  by 
the  Society  of  Arts,  and  by  tlieir  agency  spread  abroad.  In  tlie 
first  few  days  of  1850  a  fonual  Commission  was  appointed  'for 
the  promotion  of  the  Exhibition  of  the  Works  of  All  Nations, 
to  be  holden  in  the  year  1851.'  Prince  Albert  was  appointed 
President  of  the  Commission, 


cii.  IX.  ATHENS,   ROME,    AND  LONDON.  107 

On  March  21  in  the  same  year  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London 
gave  a  banquet  at  the  Mansion  House  to  the  chief  magistrates 
of  the  cities,  towns,  and  boroughs  of  the  United  Kingdom,  for 
the  purpose  of  inviting  their  co-operation  in  support  of  the 
midertaking.  Prince  Albert  was  present  and  spoke.  He  had 
cultivated  the  art  of  speaking  with  much  success,  and  had 
almost  entirely  overcome  whatever  difficulty  stood  in  his  way 
from  his  foreign  birth  and  education.  He  never  quite  lost  his 
foreign  accent .  But  his  style  of  speaking  was  clear,  thoughtful, 
stately,  and  sometimes  even  noble.  It  exactly  suited  its  pur- 
pose. It  was  that  of  a  man  who  did  not  set  up  for  an  orator ; 
and  who,  wdien  he  spoke,  wished  that  hig  ideas  rather  than 
his  words  should  impress  his  hearers.  At  the  dinner  in  the 
Mansion  House  he  spoke  with  great  clearness  and  grace  of  tlie 
purposes  of  the  Great  Exhibition.  It  was,  he  said,  to  *  give 
the  world  a  true  test,  a  living  picture,  of  the  point  of  industrial 
development  at  which  the  whole  of  mankind  has  arrived,  and 
a  new  starting-point  from  which  all  nations  will  be  able  to 
direct  their  further  exertions.' 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  project  gi  the 
Great  Exhibition  advanced  wholly  without  opposition.  Many 
persons  were  disposed  to  sneer  at  it  altogether  ;  many  were 
sceptical  about  its  doing  any  particular  good ;  not  a>  fev/ 
still  regarded  Prince  Albert  as  a  foreigner  and  a  pedant,  and 
were  exceedingly  slow  to  believe  that  anything  really  practical 
was  likely  to  be  devoloped  under  his  impulse  and  protection. 
After  some  consideration  the  Royal  Commissioners  had  fixed 
upon  Hyde  Park  as  the  best  site  for  the  great  building,  and 
many  energetic  and  some  iniluential  voices  were  raised  in  fierce 
outcry  against  what  was  called  the  profanation  of  the  park. 
It  v/as  argued  that  the  public  use  of  Hyde  Park  would  be  de- 
stroyed by  the  Exhibition ;  that  the  Park  vv^ould  be  utterly 
spoiled ;  that  its  beauty  could  never  be  restored.  A  petition 
vras  presented  by  Lord  Campbell  to  the  House  of  Lords  against 
the  occupation  of  a,ny  part  of  Hyde  Park  with  the  Exhibition 
building.  Lord  Brougham  supported  the  petition  with  his 
characteristic  impetuosity  and  vehemence,  and  denounced  the 
House  of  Lords  for  what  he  considered  its  servile  deference  to 
royalty  in  the  matter  of  the  Exhibition  and  its  site.  It  is  pro- 
bably true  enough  that  only  the  influence  of  a  prince  could  have 
carried  the  scheme  to  success  against  the  storms  of  opposition 
that  began  to  blow  at  various  periods  and  from  different  points. 
Many  times  during  its  progress  the  Prince  himself  trembled 


lo8        A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      cii  ix. 

for  the  success  of  his  scheme.  Many  a  tnne  he  must  have  felt 
mchned  to  renounce  it,  or  at  least  to  regret  that  he  had  evei 
taken  it  up. 

Absurd  as  the  opposition  to  the  scheme  may  now  seem,  it 
is  certain  that  a  great  many  sensible  persons  thought  the 
moment  singularly  inopportune  for  the  gathering  of  large 
crowds,  and  were  satisfied  that  seme  inconvenient,  if  not 
dangerous,  public  demonstrations  must  be  provoked.  The 
smouldering  embers  of  Chartism,  they  said,  were  everywhere 
under  society's  feet.  The  crowds  of  foreigners  would,  some 
people  said,  naturally  include  large  numbers  of  the  *  Eeds  '  of 
all  Continental  nations,  who  would  be  only  too  glad  to  coalesce 
with  Chartism  and  discontent  of  all  kinds,  for  the  purpose  of 
disturbing  the  peace  of  London.  The  agitation  caused  by  the 
Papal  aggression  was  still  in  full  force  and  flame.  Most  of 
the  Continental  sovereigns  looked  coldly  on  the  undertaking. 
The  King  of  Prussia  took  such  alarm  at  the  thought  of  the 
Red  Republicans  whom  the  Exhibition  would  draw  together, 
tliat  at  first  he  positively  prohibited  his  brother,  then  Prince 
of  Prussia,  now  German  Emperor,  from  attending  the  opening 
ceremonial ;  and  though  he  afterwards  withdrew  the  prohibi- 
tion, he  remained  full  of  doubts  and  fears  as  to  the  personal 
safety  of  any  royal  or  princely  personage  found  in  Hyde  Park 
on  the  opening  day.  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  being  appealed 
to  on  the  subject,  acknowledged  himself  also  full  of  appre- 
hensions." The  objections  to  the  site  continued  to  grow  up  to 
a  certain  time,  but  public  opinion  gradually  underwent  a 
change,  and  the  opposition  to  the  site  was  defeated  in  the  House 
of  Commons  by  a  large  majority. 

Even,  however,  when  the  question  of  the  site  had  been 
disposed  of,  there  remained  immense  difficulties  in  the  way. 
The  press  was  not  on  the  whole  very  favourable  to  the  project. 
As  the  time  for  the  opening  drew  near,  some  of  the  foreign 
diplomatists  in  London  began  to  sulk  at  the  whole  project. 
There  were  small  points  of  objection  made  about  the  position 
and  functions  of  foreign  ambassadors  at  the  opening  ceremonial, 
and  up  to  the  last  moment  it  was  not  quite  certain  whether 
an  absurd  diplomatic  quarrel  might  not  have  been  part  of  the 
inaugural  ceremonies  of  the  opening  day. 

The  Prince  did  not  despair,  however,  and  the  project  went 
on.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  in  selecting  a  plan 
for  the  building.  Huge  structures  of  brickwork,  looking  like 
enormous  railway  sheds,  costly  and  hideous  at  once,  were 


CH.  IX.  ATHENS    ROME,   AND   LONDON,  109 

proposed ;  it  seemed  almost  certain  that  some  one  of  them 
must  be  chosen.  Happily,  a  sudden  inspiration  struck  Mr. 
(afterwards  Sir  Joseph)  Paxton.  Why  not  try  glass  and  iron  ? 
he  asked  himself.  Why  not  build  a  palace  of  glass  and  iron 
large  enough  to  cover  all  the  intended  contents  of  the  Exhi- 
bition, and  which  should  be  at  once  light,  beautiful,  and  cheap  ? 
]\Ir.  Paxton  sketched  out  his  plan  hastily  ;  the  idea  was  eagerly 
accepted  by  the  Eoyal  Commissioners,  and  the  palace  of  glass 
and  iron  arose  within  the  specified  time  on  the  green  turf  of 
Hyde  Park.  The  idea  so  happily  hit  upon  was  serviceable  in 
more  ways  than  one  to  the  success  of  the  Exhibition.  It  made 
the  building  itself  as  much  an  object  of  curiosity  and  wonder 
as  the  collections  under  its  crystal  roof.  Of  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  v/ho  came  to  the  Exhibition  a  goodly  proportion 
were  drawn  to  Hyde  Park  rather  by  a  wish  to  see  Paxton's 
palace  of  glass  than  all  the  w^onders  of  industrial  and  plastic 
art  that  it  enclosed. 

The  success  of  the  opening  day  was  indeed  undoubted. 
There  w^ere  nearly  thirty  thousand  people  gathered  together 
within  the  building,  and  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million  of 
persons  lined  the  way  between  the  Exhibition  and  Buckingham 
Palace ;  and  yet  no  accident  whatever  occurred,  nor  had  the 
police  any  trouble  imposed  on  them  by  the  conduct  of  anybody 
in  the  crowd.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  were  no  hostile 
demonstrations  by  Red  Piepublicans  or  malignant  Chartists  or 
infuriated  Irish  Catholics.  The  one  thing  which  especially 
struck  foreign  observers,  and  to  which  many  eloquent  pens 
and  tongues  bore  witness,  was  the  orderly  conduct  of  the 
people.  Nor  did  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Exhibition  in 
any  way  belie  the  promise  of  its  opening  day.  It  continued 
to  attract  delighted  crowds  to  the  last,  and  more  than  once 
held  within  its  precincts  at  one  moment  nearly  a  hundred 
thousand  persons,  a  concourse  large  enough  to  have  made  the 
population  of  a  respectable  Continental  capital.  The  Hyde 
Park  enterprise  bequeathed  nothing  very  tangible  or  distinct 
to  the  world,  except  indeed  the  palace  which,  built  out  of  its 
fabric,  not  its  ruins,  so  gracefully  ornaments  one  of  the  soft 
hills  of  Sydenham.  But  in  a  year  made  memorable  by  many 
political  events  of  the  greatest  importance,  of  disturbed  and 
tempestuous  politics  abroad  and  at  home,  of  the  deaths  of 
many  illustrious  men,  and  the  failure  of  many  splendid  hopes, 
the  Exhibition  in  Hyde  Park  still  holds  its  place  in  memory 
— not  for  what  it  brought  or  accomplished,  but  simply  for 
itself,  its  suiTOundings,  and  its  house  of  glass. 


no       A  SHOUT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVN  TIMES.       CH.  x. 


CHAPTEE    X. 

PALMEKSTON. 

The  death  of  Sir  Eoberfc  Peel  had  left  Lord  Palmerston  the 
most  prominent,  if  not  actually  the  most  influential,  among 
the  statesmen  of  England,  Pahnerston's  was  a  strenuous 
self-asserting  character.  He  had  given  himself  up  to  the  study 
of  foreign  affairs  as  no  minister  of  his  time  had  done.  He 
had  a  peculiar  capacity  for  understanding  foreign  politics  and 
people  as  well  as  foreign  languages  ;  and  he  had  come  some- 
what to  pique  himself  upon  his  knowledge.  His  sympathies 
were  markedly  liberal.  In  all  the  popular  movements  going 
on  throughout  the  Continent  Pahnerston's  sympathies  were 
generally  with  the  peoples  and  against  the  Governments  ;  while 
he  had,  on  the  other  hand,  a  very  strong  contempt,  which  he 
took  no  pains  to  conceal,  even  for  the  very  best  class  of  the 
Continental  demagogue.  Palmerston  seized  a  conclusion  afc 
once,  and  hardly  ever  departed  from  it.  He  never  seemed  to 
care  who  knew  what  he  thought  on  any  subject.  Ho  had  a 
contempt  for  men  of  more  deliberate  temper,  and  often  spoke 
and  wrote  as  if  he  thought  a  man  slow  in  forming  an  opinion 
must  needs  be  a  dull  man,  not  to  say  a  fool.  All  opinions 
not  his  own  he  held  in  good-humoured  scorn.  In  some  of  his 
letters  we  find  him  writing  of  men  of  the  most  undoubted 
genius  and  wisdom,  wdiose  views  have  since  stood  all  the  test 
of  time  and  trial,  as  if  they  were  mere  blockheads  for  whom 
no  practical  man  could  feel  the  slightest  respect.  It  would  be 
almost  superfluous  to  say,  in  describing  a  man  of  such  a  nature, 
that  Lord  Palmerston  sometimes  fancied  he  saw  great  wisdom 
and  force  of  character  in  men  for  whom  neither  then  nor 
since  did  the  world  in  general  show  .much  regard.  As  with  a 
man,  so  with  a  cause,  Lord  Palmerston  was  to  all  appearance 
capricious  in  his  sympathies.  Calmer  and  more  earnest  minds 
were  sometimes  offended  at  what  seemed  a  lack  of  deep-seated 
principle  in  his  mind  and  liis  policy,  even  when  it  happened  that 
he  and  they  were  in  accord  as  to  the  course  that  ought  to  be 
pursued.  His  levity  often  shocked  them  ;  his  blunt,  brusque 
ways  of  speaking  and  writing  sometimes  gave  downright  offence. 
Lord  Palmerston  was  unsparing  in  his  lectures  to  foreign 
states.     He  was  always  admonishing  them  that  they  ought  to 


cii.  X.  PALME RSTON.  in 

lose  no  time  in  at  once  adopting  the  principles  of  government 
which  prevailed  in  England.  While  therefore  he  was  a  Con- 
servative in  home  politics,  and  never  even  professed  the 
slightest  personal  interest  in  any  projects  of  political  reform 
in  England,  he  got  the  credit  all  over  the  Continent  of  being 
a  supporter,  promoter,  and  patron  of  all  manner  of  revolu- 
tionary movements,  and  a  disturber  of  the  relations  between 
subjects  and  their  sovereigns.  Palmerston,  therefore,  had 
many  enemies  among  European  statesmen.  It  is  nov/ 
certain  that  the  Queen  frequently  winced  under  the  ex- 
pressions of  ill-feeling  which  were  brought  to  her  ears  as 
affecting  England,  and,  as  she  supposed,  herself,  and  which 
she  believed  to  have  been  drawn  on  her  by  the  inconsiderate 
and  impulsive  conduct  of  Palmerston.  The  Prince  Consort, 
on  whose  advice  the  Queen  very  naturally  relied,  was  a  man 
of  singularly  calm  and  earnest  nature.  He  liked  to  form 
his  opinions  deliberately  and  slowly,  and  disliked  express- 
ing any  opinion  until  his  mind  was  well  made  up.  Lord 
Palmerston,  when  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  was  much  in 
the  habit  of  writing  and  answering  despatches  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  and  without  consulting  either  the  Queen  or  his 
colleagues.  Palmerston  complained  of  the  long  delays  which 
took  place  on  several  occasions  when,  in  matters  of  urgent 
importance,  he  waited  to  submit  despatches  to  the  Queen 
before  sending  them  off.  He  contended  too  that  where  the 
general  policy  of  state  was  clearly  marked  out  and  well 
known,  it  would  have  been  idle  to  insist  that  a  Foreign 
Secretary  capable  of  performing  the  duties  of  his  office  should 
wait  to  submit  for  the  inspection  and  approval  of  the  Sovereign 
and  his  colleagues  every  scrap  of  paper  he  wrote  on  before  it 
was  allowed  to  leave  England.  But  the  Queen  complained 
that  on  matters  concerning  the  actual  policy  of  the  State 
Palmerston  was  in  the  habit  of  acting  on  his  own  independent 
judgment  and  authority ;  that  she  found  herself  more  than 
once  thus  pledged  to  a  course  of  policy  which  she  had  not 
had  an  opportunity  of  considering,  and  would  not  have 
approved  if  she  had  liad  such  an  opportunity ;  and  that  she 
hardly  ever  found  any  question  absolutely  intact  and  un- 
compromised  when  it  was  submitted  to  her  judgment. 

The  Queen  and  the  Prince  had  long  chafed  under  Lord 
Palmerston' s  cavalier  way  of  doing  business.  So  far  back  as 
1849  her  Majesty  had  felt  obliged  to  draw  the  attention  of  the 
Foreign  Secretary  to  the  fact  that  his  office  was  constitutionally 


112        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.        CH.  x. 

imder  the  control  of  the  Prime  Mmister,  and  the  despatches 
to  be  submitted  for  her  ai^proval  should,  therefore,  pass  through 
the  hands  of  Lord  John  Kussell.  Lord  John  Eussell  approved 
of  this  arrangement,  only  suggesting — and  the  suggestion  is 
of  some  moment  in  considering  Lord  Palmer ston's  defence 
of  his  conduct  afterwards —that  every  facility  should  be 
given  for  the  transaction  of  business  by  the  Queen's  attend- 
ing to  the  di^aft  despatches  as  soon  as  possible  after  their 
arrival.  The  Queen  accepted  the  suggestion  good-humouredly, 
only  pleading  that  she  should  '  not  be  pressed  for  an  answer 
within  a  few  minutes,  as  is  done  now  sometimes.'  One  can 
see  a  part  of  the  difficulty  at  least  even  from  these  slight 
hints.  Lord  Palmerston  Vv^as  rapid  in  forming  his  judgments 
as  in  all  his  proceedings,  and  when  once  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  was  impatient  of  any  delay  which  seemed  to  him  super- 
fluous. Prince  Albert  was  slow,  deliberate,  reflective,  and 
methodical.  Lord  Palmerston  was  alw^ays  sure  he  was  right 
in  every  judgment  he  formed,  even  if  it  were  adopted  on 
the  spur  of  the  moment ;  Prince  Albert  loved  reconsideration 
and  was  open  to  new  argument  and  late  conviction.  However, 
the  difficulty  was  got  over  in  1849.  Lord  Palmerston  agreed 
to  every  suggestion,  and  for  the  time  all  seemed  likely  to  go 
smoothly.  It  was  only  for  the  time.  The  Queen  soon  be- 
lieved she  had  reason  to  complain  that  the  new  arrangement 
was  not  carried  out.  Things  were  going  on,  she  thought,  in 
just  the  old  way.  Lord  Palmerston  dealt  as  before  with 
foreign  courts  according  to  what  seemed  best  to  him  at  the 
moment ;  and  his  Sovereign  and  his  colleagues  often  only 
knew  of  some  important  despatch  or  instruction  when  the 
thing  was  done  and  could  not  be  conveniently  or  becomingly 
undone.  The  Prince,  at  her  Majesty's  request,  wrote  to  Lord 
John  Kussell,  complaining  strongly  of  the  conduct  of  Lord 
Palmerston.  An  important  memorandum  was  addressed  by 
her  Majesty  to  the  Prime  Minister,  laying  down  in  clear  and 
severe  language  the  exact  rules  by  which  the  Foreign  Secretary 
must  be  bound  in  his  dealings  with  her.  The  memorandum 
was  a  severe  and  a  galling  rebuke  for  the  Foreign  Secretas.'y. 
We  can  imagine  with  what  emotions  Lord  Palmerston  must  have 
received  it.  He  was  a  proud,  self-confident  man  ;  and  it  camo 
on  him  just  in  the  moment  of  his  Pacifico  triumph.  But  he 
kept  down  his  feelings.  It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  a  high 
respect  for  the  manner  in  which  Lord  Palmerston  acted.  He 
took  hie  rebuke  in  the  most  perfect  good  temper.     He  wrote 


CH.  X.  PALME RST0r7.  1 13 

a  friendly  and  good-humoured  letter  to  Lord  John  Eussell, 
saying,  '  I  have  taken  a  copy  of  this  memorandum  of  the 
Queen,  and  will  not  fail  to  attend  to  the  directions  which  it 
contains.'  Lord  Palmerston  went  a  step  farther  in  the  way 
of  conciliation.  He  asked  for  an  interviev/  with  Prince 
Albert,  and  he  explained  to  the  Prince  in  the  most  emphatic 
and  indignant  terms  that  the  accusation  against  him  of  being 
purposely  wanting  in  respect  to  the  Sovereign  was  absolutely 
unfounded.  But  he  does  not  seem  in  the  course  of  the  inter- 
view to  have  done  much  more  than  argue  the  point  as  to  the 
propriety  and  convenience  of  the  system  he  had  lately  been 
adopting  in  the  business  of  the  Foreign  Office.  So  for  the 
hour  the  matter  dropped.  But  it  was  destined  to  come  up 
again  in  more  serious  form  than  before. 

About  this  time  the  Hungarians  had  been  making  a  des- 
perate attempt  to  throw  off  the  domination  of  Austria  and 
assert  their  independence.  The  struggle  had  begun  over  some 
questions  of  constitutional  rights  involved  in  the  connection 
between  Hungary  and  Austria,  but  it  grew  into  a  regular  re- 
bellion, having  for  its  aim  the  complete  freedom  of  Hungary. 
For  a  time  it  carried  all  before  it,  but  it  was  finally  crushed  by  tlio 
intervention  of  Russia.  This  intervention  of  Russia  called  up  a 
wide  and  deep  feeling  of  regret  and  indignation  in  this  country. 
Louis  Kossuth,  who  had  been  dictator  of  Hungary  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  insurrection,  and  who  represented,  in  the 
English  mind  at  least,  the  cause  of  Hungary  and  her  national 
independence,  came  to  England,  and  the  English  public  wel- 
comed him  with  especial  cordiality.  There  was  much  in 
Kossuth  himself  as  well  as  in  his  cause  to  attract  the  enthu- 
siasm of  popular  assemblages.  He  had  a  strikingly  handsome 
face  and  a  stately  presence.  He  was  picturesque  and  perhaps 
even  theatric  in  his  dress  and  his  bearing.  He  looked  like  a 
picture  ;  all  his  attitudes  and  gestures  seemed  as  if  they  were 
meant  to  be  reproduced  by  a  painter.  He  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  who  ever  addressed  an  English 
popular  audience.  In  one  of  his  imprisonments  Kossuth  had 
studied  the  English  language  chiefly  from  the  pages  of  Shake- 
speare. The  English  he  spoke  was  the  noblest  in  its  style 
from  which  a  student  could  supply  his  eloquence  :  Kossuth 
spoke  the  English  of  Shakespeare.  Through  all  his  speeches 
there  ran  the  thread  of  one  distinct  principle  of  international 
policy  to  which  Kossuth  endeavoured  to  obtain  the  assent  of 
the  English  people.     This  was  the  principle  that  if  one  State 


114        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  X. 

intervenes  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  another  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  down  revolution,  it  then  hecomes  the  right,  and  may 
even  be  the  duty,  of  any  third  State  to  throw  in  the  weight  of 
her  sword  against  the  unjustifiable  intervention.  As  a  prin- 
ciple this  is  nothing  more  than  some  of  the  ablest  and  most 
thoughtful  Englishmen  had  advocated  before  and  have  advocated 
since.  But  in  Kossuth's  mind,  and  in  the  understanding  of  those 
who  heard  him,  it  meant  that  England  ought  to  declare  war 
against  Eussiaor  Austria,  or  both  ;  the  former  for  having  inter- 
vened between  the  Emperor  of  Austria  and  the  Hungarians, 
and  the  latter  for  having  invited  and  profited  by  the  interven- 
tion. 

The  presence  of  Kossuth  and  the  reception  he  got  excited  a 
wild  anger  and  ale^rm  among  Austrian  statesmen.  The  Austrian 
Ambassador  in  England  was  all  sensitiveness  and  remonstrance. 
The  relations  between  this  country  and  Austria  seemed  to 
become  every  day  more  and  more  strained.  Lord  Palmerston 
regarded  the  anger  and  the  fears  of  Austria  with  a  contempt 
which  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal.  Lord  Palmerston  knew  that 
the  English  public  never  had  any  serious  notion  of  going  to 
war  with  Austria  in  obedience  to  Kossuth's  appeal.  There 
came  a  time  vv^hen  Kossuth  lived  in  England  forgotten  and 
unnoticed ;  when  his  passing  away  from  England  was  unob- 
served as  his  presence  there  long  had  been.  The  English 
crowds  who  applauded  Kossuth  at  first  meant  nothing  more 
til  an  general  sympathy  with  any  hero  of  Continental  revolu- 
tion, and  personal  admiration  for  the  eloquence  of  the  man 
who  addressed  them.  But  Kossuth  did  not  thus  accept  the 
homage  paid  to  him.  No  foreigner  could  have  understood  it 
in  his  place.  Lord  Palmerston  understood  it  thoroughly,  and 
knew  what  it  meant,  and  how  long  it  would  last. 

Some  of  Lord  Palmerston's  colleagues,  however,  became 
greatly  alarmed  when  it  was  reported  that  the  Foreign 
Minister  was  about  to  receive  a  visit  from  Kossuth  in  person 
to  thank  him  for  the  sympathy  and  protection  which  England 
had  accorded  to  the  Himgarian  refugees  while  they  were  still 
in  Turkey,  and  without  which  it  is  only  too  likely  that  they 
would  have  been  handed  over  to  Austria  or  Kussia.  If 
Kossuth  were  received  by  Lord  Palmerston,  the  Austrian 
ambassador,  it  was  confidently  reported,  would  leave  Eng- 
land. Lord  John  Russell  took  alarm,  and  called  a  meeting 
of  the  Cabinet  to  consider  the  momentous  question.  Lord 
Palmerston  reluctantly  consented  to  appease  the  alarms  of  his 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON',  1 15 

colleagues  by  promising  to  avoid  an  interview  v/itli  Kossuth. 
The  hoped-for  result,  that  of  sparing  the  sensibilities  of 
the  Austrian  Government,  was  not  attamed.  In  fact,  things 
turned  out  a  great  deal  worse  than  they  might  have  done  if 
the  interview  between  Lord  Palmerston  and  Kossuth  had  been 
quietly  allowed  to  come  off.  Meetings  were  held  to  express 
sympathy  with  Kossuth,  and  addresses  were  voted  to  Lord 
Palmerston  thanking  him  for  the  influence  he  had  exerted  m 
preventing  the  surrender  of  Kossuth  to  Austria.  Lord  Pal- 
merston consented  to  receive  these  addresses  from  the  hands 
of  deputations  at  the  Foreign  Office.  The  whole  proceeding 
considerably  alarmed  some  of  Lord  Palmerston's  colleagues, 
and  was  regarded  with  distinct  displeasure  by  the  Queen  and 
Prince  Albert.  But  the  possible  indiscretion  of  Lord  Palmerston's 
dealings  with  a  deputation  or  two  from  Finsbury  and  Islington 
became  a  matter  of  little  interest  when  the  country  was  called 
upon  to  consider  the  propriety  of  the  Foreign  Secretary's 
deahngs  with  the  new  ruler  of  a  new  state  system,  with  the 
author  of  the  coivp  d'etat. 

Things  had  been  going  rather  strangely  in  France.  After 
the  fall  of  Louis  Philippe  a  republic  had  been  set  up,  and  it 
had  received  the  support  of  a  young  man  whom  we  last  saw 
playing  the  part  of  special  constable  against  the  Chartists,  the 
Prince  Louis  Napoleon.  Louis  Napoleon  was  a  nephew  of 
the  great  Emperor.  He  had  made  attempts  to  get  on  the 
throne  of  France  before,  and  been  imprisoned  and  escaped, 
and  taken  refuge  in  England.  Louis  Napoleon  had  lived  many 
years  in  England.  He  was  as  well  known  there  as  any  prominent 
member  of  the  English  aristocracy.  He  went  a  good  deal  into 
very  various  society,  literary,  artistic,  merely  fashionable,  purely 
rowdy,  as  well  as  into  that  political  society  which  might  have 
seemed  natural  to  him.  In  all  circles  the  same  opinion  appears 
to  have  been  formed  of  him.  From  the  astute  Lord  Palmer- 
ston to  the  most  ignorant  of  the  horse-jockeys  with  whom  ho 
occasionally  consorted,  all  who  met  him  seemed  to  think  of 
the  Prince  in  much  the  same  way.  It  was  agreed  on  all  hands 
that  he  was  a  fatuous,  dreamy,  moony,  impracticable,  stupid 
young  man.  A  sort  of  stolid  amiability,  not  enlightened 
enough  to  keep  him  out  of  Ioav  company  and  questionable  con- 
duct, appeared  to  be  his  principal  characteristic.  He  con- 
■  stantly  talked  of  his  expected  accession  somehow  and  some  time 
to  the  throne  of  France,  and  people  only  smiled  pityingly  at  him. 
When  the  republic  was  fairly  established  he  went  over   to 


Ii6         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.        CH.  X. 

France,  gave  it  liis  support,  and  succeeded  in  being  elected  ita 
president.  Then  lie  plotted  to  overthrow  it.  He  won  the  army 
to  his  side.  On  the  second  of  December,  1851,  he  seized  and 
imprisoned  all  his  political  opponents  ;  the  next  day  he  bora 
down  with  the  most  savage  violence  all  possible  opposition. 
Paris  was  in  the  hands  of  his  soldiers  ;  hundreds  of  helpless 
people  were  slaughtered,  the  streets  of  Paris  ran  with  blood  ; 
Louis  Napoleon  proclaimed  himself  Prince  President.  This 
w^as  the  cowp  d'etat. 

The  news  of  the  coui^  d'etat  took  Englpaid  by  surprise.  A 
shock  went  through  the  whole  country.  The  almost  universal 
voice  of  popular  opinion  condemned  it  as  strongly  as  nearly  all 
men  of  genuine  enlightenment  and  feeling  condemned  it  then 
and  since.  The  Queen  was  particularly  anxious  that  nothing 
should  be  said  by  the  British  ambassador  to  commit  us  to  any 
approval  of  what  had  been  done.  On  December  4  the  Queen 
wrote  to  Lord  John  Piussell  from  Osborne,  expressing  her  desire 
that  Lord  Normanby,  our  ambassador  at  Paris,  should  be  in- 
structed to  remain  entirely  passive,  and  say  no  word  that  might  bo 
misconstrued  into  approval  of  the  action  of  the  Prince  President. 
Lord  Normanby's  reply  to  this  despatch  created  a  startling  sen- 
sation. Our  ambassador  wrote  to  say  that  when  he  called  on 
the  French  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  to  inform  him  that  ho 
had  been  instructed  by  her  Majesty's  Government  not  to  mako 
any  change  in  his  relations  with  the  French  Government,  the 
Minister,  M.  Turgot,  told  him  that  he  had  heard  two  days 
before  from  Count  Walewski,  the  French  ambassador  in 
London,  that  Lord  Palmerston  had  expressed  to  him  his 
entire  approval  of  what  Louis  Napoleon  had  done,  and  his 
conviction  that  the  Prince  President  could  not  have  acted 
otherwise.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  exaggerate  the  sensation 
produced  among  Lord  Palmerston's  colleagues  by  this  astound- 
ing piece  of  news.  The  Queen  wrote  at  once  to  Lord  John 
Ptussell,  asking  him  if  he  knew  anything  about  the  approval 
which  *  the  French  Government  pretend  to  have  received  ; ' 
declaring  that  she  could  not  *  believe  in  the  truth  of  the  asser- 
tion, as  such  an  approval  given  by  Lord  Palmerston  would 
have  been  in  complete  contradiction  to  the  line  of  strict  neu- 
trality and  passiveness  which  the  Queen  had  expressed  her 
desire  to  see  followed  with  regard  to  the  late  convulsions  at 
Paris.'  Lord  John  Eussell  replied  that  he  had  written  to  Lord 
Palmerston,  *  saying  tliat  he  presumed  there  was  no  truth  in 
the  report.'     The  reply  of  Lord  Palmerston  left  no  doubt  that 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTO^r.  1 17 

Lord  Palmerston  had  expressed  to  Count  Walewsld  his 
approval  of  the  cowp  d'etat. 

Lord  Pahnerston  endeavoured  to  draw  a  distinction 
between  the  expressions  of  a  Foreign  Secretary  in  conversa- 
tion with  an  ambassador,  and  a  formal  declaration  of  opinion. 
But  it  is  clear  that  the  French  ambassador  did  not  understand 
Lord  Palmerston  to  be  merely  indulging  in  the  irresponsible 
gossip  of  private  life,  and  that  Lord  Palmerston  never  said  a 
word  to  impress  him  with  the  belief  that  their  conversation  had 
that  colourless  and  unmeaning  character.  In  any  case  it  was 
surely  a  piece  of  singular  indiscretion  on  the  part  of  a  Foreign 
Minister  to  give  the  French  ambassador,  even  in  private  con- 
versation, an  unqualified  opinion  in  favour  of  a  stroke  of  policy 
of  which  the  British  Government  as  a  whole,  and  indeed  with 
the  one  exception  of  Lord  Palmerston,  entirely  disapproved. 
Lord  John  Eussell  made  up  his  mind.  He  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  could  no  longer  go  on  with  Lord  Palmer- 
ston as  a  colleague  in  the  Foreign  Office.  The  quarrel  wag 
complete ;  Lord  Palmerston  ceased  from  that  time  to  be 
Foreign  Secretary,  and  his  place  was  taken  by  Lord  Granville. 
Seldom  has  a  greater  sensation  been  produced  by  the  re- 
moval of  a  minister.  The  effect  w^hich  was  created  all  over 
Europe  was  probably  just  what  Lord  Palmerston  would  have 
desired ;  the  belief  prevailed  everywhere  that  ho  had  been 
sacrificed  to  the  monarchical  and  reactionary  influences  all  over 
the  Continent.  The  statesmen  of  Europe  were  under  the  im- 
pression that  Lord  Palmerston  was  put  out  of  office  as  an  evi- 
dence that  England  was  about  to  withdraw  from  her  former  atti- 
tude of  sympathy  with  the  popular  movements  of  the  Continent. 

The  meetmg  of  Parliament  took  place  on  February  3 
following,  1852.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  say  the  keenest 
anxiety  was  felt  to  know  the  full  reason  of  the  sudden  dis- 
missal. The  House  of  Commons  was  not  long  left  to  wait 
for  an  explanation.  Lord  John  Eussell  made  a  long  speech, 
in  which  he  went  into  the  whole  history  of  the  differences 
between  Lord  Palmerston  and  his  colleagues  ;  and,  what  was 
more  surprismg  to  the  House,  into  a  history  of  the  late 
Foreign  Secretary's  differences  with  his  Sovereign,  and  the 
threat  of  dismissal  which  had  so  long  been  hanging  over  his 
head.  The  Prime  Minister  read  to  the  House  the  Que.en's 
menioraudum.  Lord  John  Eussell's  speech  was  a  great  suc- 
cess. Lord  Palmerston's  was,  even  in  the  estimation  oi  hia 
closest  friends,  a  failure.     Palmerston  seemed  to  have  prac- 


Ii8         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN   TIMES.       CH.  X* 

tically  no  defence.  He  only  went  over  again  the  points  put 
by  him  in  the  correspondence  abeady  noticed;  contended  that 
on  the  whole  he  had  judged  rightly  of  the  French  crisis,  and 
that  ho  could  not  help  forming  an  opinion  on  it,  and  so  fo]"tli. 
Of  the  Queen's  memorandum  he  said  nothing.  He  made  up 
his  mind  that  a  dispute  between  a  sovereign  and  a  subject 
would  be  unbecoming  of  both  ;  and  he  passed  over  the  memo- 
randum in  deliberate  silence.  The  almost  universal  opinion  of 
the  House  of  Commons  and  of  the  clubs  was  that  Lord 
Palmerston's  career  was  closed.  *  Palmerston  is  smashed ! ' 
was  the  common  saying  of  the  clubs.  A  night  or  two  after 
the  debate  Lord  Dalling  met  Mr.  Disraeli  on  the  staircase  of 
the  Eussian  Embassy,  and  Disraeli  remarked  to  him  that 
'  there  was  a  Palmerston.'  Lord  Palmerston  evidently  did 
not  think  so.  The  letters  he  wrote  to  friends  immediately 
after  his  fall  show  him  as  jaunty  and  full  of  confidence  as 
ever.  He  was  quite  satisfied  with  the  way  things  had  gone. 
He  waited  cannly  for  what  he  called,  a  few  days  afterwards, 
*  My  tit-for-tat  with  John  Kussell,'  which  came  about  indeed 
sooner  than  even  he  himself  could  well  have  expected. 

All  through  the  year  1852  the  national  mind  of  England 
was  disturbed.  The  country  was  stirring  itself  in  quite  an 
unusual  manner,  in  order  that  it  might  be  ready  for  a  possible 
and  even  an  anticipated  invasion  from  France.  The  Volun- 
teer movement  sprang  into  sudden  existence.  All  over  the 
country  corps  of  young  volunteers  were  being  formed,  kw. 
immense  amount  of  national  enthusiasm  accompanied  and 
acclaimed  the  formation  of  the  volunteer  army,  which 
received  the  sanction  of  the  Crown  early  in  the  year,  and 
thus  became  a  national  institution.  The  meaning  of  all 
this  movement  was  explained  by  the  steady  progress  of  the 
Prince  President  of  France  to  an  imperial  throne.  The 
previous  year  had  closed  upon  his  couj)  d'etat.  He  had 
arrested,  imprisoned,  banished,  or  shot  his  principal  enemies, 
and  had  demanded  from  the  French  people  a  Presidency 
for  ten  years,  a  Ministry  responsible  to  the  executive 
power — himself  alone— and  two  political  Chambers  to  be 
elected  by  universal  suffrage.  Nearly  five  hundred  prisoners, 
untried  before  any  tribunal,  even  that  of  a  drum-head, 
had-  been  shipped  off  to  Cayenne.  The  streets  of  Paris 
had  been  soaked  in  blood.  The  President  instituted  a 
vUbucite,  or  vote  of  tlio  whole  people,  .and  of  course  he  got 
all  ho  asked  for.     There  was  no  arguing  with  the  commander 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON.  119 

of  twenty  legions,  and  of  sucli  legions  as  those  that  had  ope- 
rated with  terrible  efficiency  on  the  Boulevards.  The  Bona- 
partist  Empire  was  restored.  The  President  became  Emperor, 
and  Prince  Louis  Napoleon  was  Napoleon  the  Third. 

It  would  have  been  impossible  that  the  English  people 
could  view  all  this  without  emotion  and  alarm.  They  could 
not  see  with  indifference  the  rise  of  a  new  Napoleon  to  power. 
The  one  special  characteristic  of  the  Napoleonic  principle  was 
its  hostility  to  England.  The  life  of  the  great  Napoleon  in 
its  greatest  days  had  been  ^.evoted  to  the  one  purpose  of 
humiliating  England.  His  plans  had  been  foiled  by  England. 
He  owed  his  fall  principally  to  England.  He  died  a  prisoner 
of  England,  and  with  his  hatred  of  her  embittered  rather  than 
appeased.  It  did  not  seem  possible  that  a  new  Emperor 
Napoleon  could  arise  without  bringing  a  restoration  of  that 
hatred  along  with  him.  An  invasion  of  England  was  not  a 
likely  event.  But  it  was  not  by  any  means  an  impossible 
event.  The  more  composedly  one  looks  back  to  it  now,  the 
more  he  will  be  compelled  to  admit  that  it  was  at  least  on  the 
cards.  The  feelmg  of  national  uneasiness  and  alarm  was  not  a 
mere  panic.  There  were  five  projects  wdth  which  public  opinion 
all  over  Europe  specially  credited  Louis  Napoleon  when  he  •: 
began  his  imperial  reigii.  One  was  a  war  with  Russia.  Another  | 
was  a  war  with  Austria.  A  third  was  a  war  with  Prussia.  A  I 
fourth  was  the  annexation  of  Belgium.  The  fifth  was  the  inva-  | 
sion  of  England.^  Three  of  these  projects  were  carried  out.  The 
fourth  vre  know  was  in  contemplation.  Our  combination  with 
France  m  the  first  project  probably  put  all  serious  thought  of 
the  fifth  out  of  the  head  of  the  French  Emperor.  He  got  far 
more  prestige  out  of  an  alliance  with  us  than  he  could  ever 
have  got  out  of  any  quarrel  v/ith  us  ;  and  he  had  littk  or  no 
risk.  But  we  need  not  look  upon  the  mood  of  England  in  1852 
as  one  of  idle  and  baseless  panic.  The  same  feeling  broke 
into  life  again  in  1859,  when  the  Emperor  of  the  French 
suddenly  announced  his  determination  to  go  to  w^ar  with 
Austria.  It  was  in  this  latter  period  indeed  that  the  Volun- 
teer movement  became  a  great  national  organisation. .  But  in 
1852  the  beginning  of  an  army  of  volunteers  was  made  ;  and 
what  is  of  more  importance  to  the  immediate  business  of  our 
history,  the  Government  determined  to  bring  m  a  bill  for  the 
reorganisation  of  the  national  militia. 

Our  militia  was  not  in  any  case  a  body  to  be  particularly 
proud  of  at  that  time.     It  had  fallen  into  decay,  and  almost 


I20        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,       CH.  X. 

into  disorganisation.     Nothing  could  have  been  a  more  j^roper 
work  for  any  Government  than  its  restoration  to  efficiency 
and  respectabihty.     We  had  on  our  hands  at  the  time  one  of 
our   httle  wars — a   Caffre  war,   which   was   protracted   to   a 
vexatious  length,  and  which  was  not  without  serious  military 
difficulty.     It  began  in  the  December  of  1B50,  and  was  not 
completely  disposed  of  before  the  early  part  of  1853.     We 
could  not  afford  to  have  our  defences  in  any  defective  con- 
dition.     But  it  was  an   unfortunate   characteristic   of  Lord 
John  Eussell's  Government  that  it  attempted  so  much  legis- 
lation, not  because  some  particular  scheme  commended  its-elf 
to  the  mature  wdsdom  of  the  Ministry,  but  because  something 
had  to  be  done  in  a  hurry  to  satisfy  public  opinion ;  and  the 
Government  could  not  think  of  anything  better  at  the  moment 
than  the  first  scheme  that  came  to  hand.     Lord  John  Kussell  ' 
accordingly  introduced  a  Militia  Bill,  which  was  m  the  highest  ' 
degree  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory.   The  principal  peculiarity 
of  it  was  that  it  proposed  to  substitute  a  local  militia  for  the   \ 
regular  force  that  had  been  in  existence.     Lord  Palmerston    I 
saw  great  objections  to  this  alteration,  and  urged  them  with    ; 
much  briskness   and   skill   on   the   night   when   Lord   John   | 
Russell  explained  his  measure.     When  Palmerston  began  his    \ 
speech,  he  probably  intended  to  be  merely  critical  as  regarded    \ 
points  in  the  measure  which  were  susceptible  of  amendment ;     I 
but  as  he  w^ent  on  he  found  more  and  more  that  he  had  the 
House  with  him.     Every  objection  he  made,  every  criticism 
he  urged,  almost  every  sentence  he  spoke,  drew 'down  increasing 
cheers.     Lord  Palmerston  saw  that  the  House  was  not  only 
thoroughly  with  him  on  this  ground,  but  thoroughly  against 
the  Government  on  various  grounds.     A  few  nights  after  he 
followed  up  his  first  success  by  proposing  a  resolution  to  sub- 
stitute the  word  *  regular  '  for  the  word  *  local '  in  the  bill ; 
thus,  in  fact,  to  reconstruct  the  bill  on  an  entirely  different 
principle  from  that  adopted  by  its  framer.     The  effort  was 
successful.     The  Peelites  went  with  Palmerston  ;  the  Protec- 
tionists followed  him  as  well ;  and  the  result  was  that  1'30  votes 
were  given  for  the  amendment,  and  only  125  against  it.     The 
Government  were  defeated  by  a  majority  of  eleven.   Lord  John 
Russell  instantly  announced  that  he  could  no  longer  continue 
in  office,  as  he  did  not  possess  the  confidence  of  the  country. 
The   announcement   took  the   House   by   surprise.     Pahner- 
ston  did  not  expect  any  such  result,  he  declared ;  but  the 
revenge  was  doubtless  sweet  for  all  that.    This  was  in  February 


CH.  X.  PALMERS  TON.  I2i 

1852 ;  and  it  was  only  in  the  December  of  the  previous  year 
that  Lord  Pahiierston  was  compelled  to  leave  the  Foreign 
Office  by  Lord  John  Eussell. 

The  Eussell  Ministry  had  done  little  and  initiated  less. 
It  had  carried  on  Peel's  system  by  throwing  open  the  markets 
to  foreign  as  well  as  colonial  sugar,  and  by  the  repeal  of  the 
Navigation  Laws  enabled  merchants  to  employ  foreign  ships 
and  seamen  in  the  conveyance  of  their  goods.  It  had  made 
a  mild  and  ineffectual  effort  at  a  Eeform  Bill,  and  had  feebly 
favoured  attempts  to  admit  Jevv^s  to  Parliament.  It  sank  from 
power  with  an  unexpected  collapse  in  which  the  nation  felt 
small  concern.  Lord  Palmerston  did  not  come  to  power 
again  at  that  moment.  He  might  have  gone  in  with  Lord 
Derby  if  he  had  been  so  inclined.  But  Lord  Derby,  who,  it 
may  be  said,  had  succeeded  to  that  title  on  the  death  of  his 
father  in  the  preceding  year,  still  talked  of  testmg  the  policy 
of  Free  Trade  at  a  general  election,  and  of  course  Palmerston 
was  not  disposed  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  proposi- 
tion. Lord  Derby  tried  various  combinations  in  vain,  and  at 
last  had  to  experiment  with  a  Cabinet  of  undiluted  Protection- 
ists. He  had  to  take  office,  not  because  he  wanted  it,  or  because 
anyone  in  particular  wanted  him  ;  but  simply  and  solely 
because  there  was  no  one  else  who  could  undertake  the  task. 
The  Ministry  which  Lord  Derby  was  able  to  form  was  not 
a  strong  one.  Lord  Palmerston  described  it  as  containing 
two  men  of  mark,  Derby  and  Disraeli,  and  a  number  of 
ciphers.  It  had  not,  except  for  these  two,  a  single  man  of 
any  political  ability,  and  had  hardly  one  of  any  political  ex- 
perience. It  had  an  able  lawyer  for  Lord  Chancellor,  Lord 
St.  Leonards,  but  he  was  nothing  of  a  politician.  The  rest  of 
the  members  of  the  Government  were  respectable  country 
gentlemen.  The  head  of  the  Government  was  remarkable  for 
his  dashing  blunders  as  a  politician  quite  as  much  as  for  his 
dashing  eloquence. 

Concerning  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  many  of  his  own  party  were  rather  more  afraid  of  his 
genius  than  of  the  dulness  of  any  of  his  colleagues.  It  is 
not  a  pleasant  task  in  the  best  of  circumstances  to  be  at  the 
head  of  a  tolerated  Ministry  in  the  House  of  Commons  :  a 
Ministry  which  is  in  a  mmority,  and  only  holds  its  place  be- 
cause there  is  no  one  ready  to  relieve  it  of  the  responsibility 
of  office.  Earely  indeed  is  the  leadership  of  the  House  of 
Commons  undertaken  by  anyone  who  has  not  previously  held 

6 


122        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  X. 

office  ;  and  Mr.  Disraeli  entered  upon  leadership  and  office  at 
the  same  moment  for  the  first  time.  He  became  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Among  the  many  gifts  with  which  he  was  accredited  by  fame, 
not  a  single  admirer  had  hitherto  dreamed  of  including  a 
capacity  for  the  mastery  of  figures.  In  addition  to  all  the 
ordinary  difficulties  of  the  Ministry  of  a  minority  there  was, 
in  this  instance,  the  difficulty  arising  from  the  obscurity  and 
inexperience  of  nearly  all  its  members.  Facetious  persons 
dubbed  the  new  Administration  the  *  Who  ?  Who  ?  Ministry.' 
The  explanation  of  this  odd  nickname  was  found  in  a  story 
then  in  circulation  about  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  The  Duke, 
it  v/as  said,  was  anxious  to  hear  from  Lord  Derby  at  the 
earliest  moment  all  about  the  composition  of  his  Cabinet.  He 
was  overheard  asking  the  new  Prime  Minister  in  the  House  of 
Lords  the  names  of  his  intended  colleagues.  The  Duke  was 
rather  deaf,  and,  like  most  deaf  persons,  spoke  in  very  loud 
tones,  and  of  course  had  to  be  answered  in  tones  also  rather 
elevated.  That  which  was  meant  for  a  whispered  conversa- 
tion became  audible  to  the  whole  House.  As  Lord  Derby 
mentioned  each  name,  the  Duke  asked  in  wonder  and  eager- 
ness, '  Who  ?  Who  ?  '  After  each  new  name  came  the  same 
inquiry.  The  Duke  of  W^ellington  had  clearly  never  heard  of 
most  of  the  new  Mmisters  before.  The  story  went  about ; 
and  Lord  Derby's  Government  was  familiarly  known  as  the 
*  Who?  Who?  Ministry.' 

Lord  Derby  entered  office  with  the  avowed  mtention  of 
testing  the  Protection  question  all  over  again.  But  he  was 
no  sooner  in  office  than  he  found  that  the  bare  suggestion  had 
immensely  mcreased  his  difficulties.  The  Free  Traders  began 
to  stand  together  again  the  moment  Lord  Derby  gave  his 
milucky  hint.  Every  week  that  passed  over  his  head  did 
sometking  to  show  him  the  mistake  he  had  made  when  he 
hampered  himself  with  any  such  undertaking  as  the  revival  of 
the  Protection  question.  Any  chance  the  Government  might 
otherwise  have  had  of  making  effective  head  against  their 
very  trying  difficulties  was  completely  cut  away  from  them. 
The  Free  Trade  League  was  reorganised.  A  conference 
of  Liberal  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  held  at 
the  residence  of  Lord  Jolm  Russell  in  Chesham  Place,  at 
which  it  was  resolved  to  extract  or  extort  from  the  Govern, 
ment  a  full  avowal  of  their  policy  with  regard  to  Protection 
and  Free  Trade.     The  feat  would  have  been  rather  difficult  of 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON.  123 

accomplisliment,  seeing  that  the  Government  had  absohitely 
no  policy  to  offer  on  the  subject,  and  were  only  hoping  to  be 
able  to  consult  the  country  as  one  might  consult  an  oracle. 
The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  when  he  made  his  financial 
statement,  accepted  the  increased  prosperity  of  the  few  years 
preceding  with  an  unction  which  showed  that  he  at  least  had 
no  particular  notion  of  attempting  to  reverse  the  policy  which 
had  so  greatly  contributed  to  its  progress.  Mr.  Disraeli 
pleased  the  Peelites  and  the  Liberals  much  more  by  his  state- 
ment than  he  pleased  his  chief  or  many  of  his  followers.  His 
speech  indeed  was  very  skilful.  People  were  glad  that  one  who 
had  proved  himself  so  clever  with  many  things  should  have 
shown  himself  equal  to  the  uncongenial  and  unwonted  task  of 
dealing  with  dry  facts  and  figures. 

Mr.  Disraeli  merely  proposed  in  his  financial  statement  to 
leave  things  as  he  found  them ;  to  continue  the  mcome-tax 
for  another  year,  as  a  provisional  arrangement  penduig  that 
complete  re-examination  of  the  financial  affairs  of  the  country 
to  which  he  intimated  that  he  found  himself  quite  equal  at 
the  proper  time.  No  one  could  suggest  any  better  course ; 
and  the  new  Chancellor  came  off  on  the  whole  with  flying 
colours.  The  Government  on  the  whole  did  not  do  badly 
during  this  period  of  their  probation.  They  introduced  and 
carried  a  Militia  Bill,  for  which  they  obtained  the  cordial 
support  of  Lord  Palmerston  ;  and  they  gave  a  Constitution  to 
New  Zealand  ;  and  then,  in  the  beginning  of  July,  the  Parlia- 
ment was  prorogued  and  the  dissolution  took  place.  The 
elections  were  signalised  by  very  serious  riots  in  many  parts 
of  the  comitry.  In  Ireland  particularly  party  passions  ran 
high.  The  landlords  and  the  police  were  on  one  side ;  the 
priests  and  the  popular  party  on  the  other ;  and  in  several 
places  there  was  some  bloodshed.  It  was  not  in  Ireland,  how- 
ever, a  question  about  Free  Trade  or  Protection.  The  ques- 
tion which  agitated  the  Irish  constituencies  was  that  of  Tenant 
Eight  m  the  first  instance  ;  and  there  was  also  much  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  remaining  from  the  discussions  on  the 
Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill. 

From  the  time  of  the  elections  nothmg  more  was  heard 
about  Protection  or  about  the  possibility  of  getting  a  new 
trial  for  its  principles.  Mr.  Disraeli  not  only  threw  Protection 
overboard,  but  boldly  declared  that  no  one  could  have  sup- 
posed the  Ministry  had  tlie  slightest  intention  of  proposing  to 
bring  back  the  laws  that  were  repealed  in  1846.     In  fact  the 


124        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,       CH.  X. 

fcime,  he  declared,  had  gone  by  when  such  exploded  iDolitics 
could  even  mterest  the  people  of  this  country.  The  elections 
did  little  or  nothing  for  the  Government.  They  gained  a 
little,  but  they  were  still  to  be  the  Ministry  of  a  minority ;  a 
Ministry  on  sufferance.  It  was  plain  to  every  one  that  their 
existence  as  a  Ministry  was  only  a  question  of  days.  Specu- 
lation was  already  busy  as  to  their  successors  ;  and  it  was 
evident  that  a  new  Government  could  only  be  formed  by  some 
sort  of  coalition  between  the  Whigs  and  the  Peelites. 

Among  the  noteworthy  events  of  the  general  election  was 
the  return  of  Macaulay  to  the  House  of  Commons.  Edinburgh 
elected  him  in  a  manner  particularly  complimentary  to  him 
and  honourable  to  herself.  He  had  for  some  years  been 
absent  from  Parliament.  Differences  had  arisen  between  him 
and  his  constituents,  and  the  result  of  it  was  that  at  the 
general  election  of  1847  Macaulay  was  left  third  on  the  poll 
at  Edinburgh.  He  felt  this  deeply.  He  might  have  easily 
found  some  other  constituency ;  but  his  wounded  pride 
hastened  a  resolution  he  had  for  some  time  been  forming  to 
retire  to  a  life  of  private  literary  labour.  He  therefore  re- 
mained out  of  Parliament.  In  1852  the  movement  of  Edin- 
burgh towards  him  was  entirely  spontaneous.  Edinburgh  was 
anxious  to  atone  for  the  error  of  which  she  had  been  guilty. 
Macaulay  would  go  no  further  than  to  say  that  if  Edinburgh 
spontaneously  elected  him,  he  should  deem  it  a  very  high  honour, 
but  he  would  not  do  anything  whatever  to  court  favour.  He 
did  not  want  to  be  elected  to  Parliament,  he  said ;  he  was 
very  happy  in  his  retirement.  Edinburgh  elected  him  on 
those  terms.  He  was  not  long  allowed  by  his  health  to  serve 
her  ;  but  so  long  as  he  remained  in  the  House  of  Commons  it 
was  as  member  for  Edinburgh. 

On  September  14,  1852,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  died. 
His  end  was  singularly  peaceful.  He  fell  quietly  asleep  about 
a  quarter-past  three  in  the  afternoon  in  Walmer  Castle,  and 
he  did  not  wake  any  more.  He  was  a  very  old  man — in  his 
eighty-fourth  year — and  his  death  had  naturally  been  looked 
for  as  an  event  certain  to  come  soon.  Yet  when  it  did  come 
thus  naturally  and  peacefully,  it  created  a  profound  public 
emotion.  No  other  man  in  our  time  ever  held  the  position  in 
Eiigland  which  the  Duke  oi  Wellington  had  occupied  for  more 
than  a  whole  generation.  The  place  he  had  won  for  himself 
was  absolutely  unique.  His  great  deeds  belonged  to  a  past 
time.   He  was  hardly  anything  of  a  statesman  ;  he  knew  littla 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON,  125 

and  cared  less  about  what  may  be  called  statecraft ;  and  as 
an  administrator  he  had  made  many  mistakes.  But  the  trust 
which  the  nation  had  in  him  as  a  counsellor  was  absolutely 
unlimited.  It  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  anyone  to  sup- 
pose that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  actuated  in  any  step 
he  took,  or  advice  he  gave,  by  any  feeling  but  a  desire  for  the 
good  of  the  State.  His  loyalty  to  the  Sovereign  had  some- 
thing antique  and  touching  in  it.  There  was  a  blending  of 
personal  affection  with  the  devotion  of  a  state  servant  which 
lent  a  certain  romantic  dignity  to  the  demeanour  and  cha- 
racter of  one  who  otherwise  had  but  little  of  the  poetical  or 
the  sentimental  in  his  nature.  In  the  business  of  politics  he 
had  but  one  prevailing  anxiety,  and  that  was  that  the  Queen's 
Government  should  be  satisfactorily  carried  on.  He  gave  up 
again  and  again  his  own  most  cherished  convictions,  most 
ingrained  prejudices,  in  order  that  he  might  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  Queen's  Government  and  the  proper  carrying  of  it 
on.  This  simple  fidelity,  sometimes  rather  whimsically  dis- 
played, stood  him  often  in  stead  of  an  exalted  statesmanship, 
and  enabled  him  to  extricate  the  Government  and  the  nation 
from  difficulties  in  which  a  political  insight  far  more  keen 
than  his  might  have  failed  to  prove  a  guide. 

It  was  for  this  simple  and  unswerving  devotion  to  the 
.^national  good  that  the  people  of  England  admired  and 
revered  him.  He  had  not  what  would  be  called  a  loveable 
temperament,  and  yet  the  nation  loved  him.  He  was  cold 
and  brusque  in  manner,  and  seemed  in  general  to  have 
hardly  a  gleam  of  the  emotional  in  him.  This  was  not 
because  he  lacked  affections.  On  the  contrary,  his  affections 
and  his  friendships  were  warm  and  enduring ;  and  even  in 
public  he  had  more  than  once  given  way  to  outbursts  of 
emotion  such  as  a  stranger  would  never  have  expected  from 
one  of  that  cold  and  rigid  demeanour.  When  Sir  Eobert 
Peel  died,  Wellington  spoke  of  him  in  the  House  of  Lords  with 
the  tears  which  he  did  not  even  try  to  control  running  down 
his  cheeks.  But  in  his  ordinary  bearing  there  was  little  of 
the  manner  that  makes  a  man  a  popular  idol.  He  was  not 
brilliant  or  dashing,  or  emotional  or  graceful.  He  was  dry, 
cold,  self-contained.  Yet  the  people  loved  him  and  trusted  in 
him  ;  loved  him  perhaps  especially  because  they  so  trusted  in 
him.  The  nation  was  not  ungrateful.  It  heaped  honours  on 
W^ellington;  it  would  have  heaped  more  on  him  if  it  Imew 
how.     It  gave  him  its  almost  unquahfied  admiration.     On  his 


126        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  X. 

death  it  tried  to  give  liirn  siicli  a  public  funeral  as  hero  never 
had. 

The  new  Parliament  was  called  to£?ether  in  November.  It 
brought  into  public  life  in  England  a  man  who  afterwards  made 
some  mark  in  our  politics,  and  whose  intellect  and  debating 
power  seemed  at  one  time  to  promise  him  a  position  inferior  to 
that  of  hardly  anyone  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This  was 
Mr.  Robert  Lowe,  who  had  returned  from  one  of  the  Australian 
colonies  to  enter  political  life  in  his  native  country.  Mr.  Lowe 
was  a  scholar  of  a  highly  cultured  order ;  and,  despite  some 
serious  defects  of  delivery,  he  proved  to  be  a  debater  of  the 
very  highest  class,  especially  gifted  with  the  weapons  of 
sarcasm,  scorn,  and  invective.  He  was  a  Liberal  in  the 
intellectual  sense ;  he  was  opposed  to  all  restraints  on  educa- 
tion and  on  the  progress  of  a  career  ;  but  he  had  a  detestation 
for  democratic  doctrines  which  almost  amounted  to  a  mania. 
With  the  whole  force  of  a  temperament  very  favourable  to 
intellectual  scorn  he  despised  alike  the  rural  Tory  and  the 
town  Radical.  His  opinions  were  generally  rather  negative 
than  positive.  He  did  not  seem  to  have  any  very  positive 
opinions  of  any  kind  where  politics  were  concerned.  He  was 
governed  by  a  detestation  of  abstractions  and  sentimentalities, 
and  '  views '  of  all  sorts.  If  contempt  for  the  intellectual 
weaknesses  of  an  opposing  party  or  doctrine  could  have  mad% 
a  great  politician,  Mr.  Lowe  would  have  won  that  name.  In 
politics,  however,  criticism  is  not  enough.  One  must  be  able 
to  originate,  to  mould  the  will  of  others,  to  compromise,  to 
lead  while  seeming  to  follow,  often  to  follow  Avhile  seeming  to 
lead.  Of  gifts  like  these  Mr.  Lowe  had  no  share.  He  never 
became  more  than  a  great  Parliamentary  critic  of  the  acrid 
and  vitriolic  style. 

Almost  immediately  on  the  assembling  of  the  new 
Parliament,  Mr.  Villiers  brought  forward  a  resolution  not 
merely  pledging  the  House  of  Commons  to  a  Free  Trade 
policy,  but  pouring  out  a  sort  of  censure  on  all  who  had 
hitherto  failed  to  recognise  its  worth.  This  step  was  thought 
necessary,  and  was  indeed  made  necessary  by  the  errors  of  which 
Lord  Derby  had  been  guilty,  and  the  preposterous  vapourings 
of  some  of  his  less  responsible  followers.  If  the  resolution 
had  been  passed,  the  Government  must  have  resigned.  But 
Lord  Palmerston  devised  an  amendment  which  afforded  them 
the  means  of  a  more  or  less  honourable  retreat.  This  resolu- 
tioji  pledged  the  House  to  the  *  policy  of  unrestricted  com« 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON.  127 

petition  firmly  maintained  and  prudently  extended ; '  but 
recorded  no  panegyric  of  the  legislation  of  1846,  and  conse- 
quent condemnation  of  those  who  opposed  that  legislation. 
The  amendment  was  accepted  by  all  but  the  small  band  of 
irreconcilable  Protectionists :  468  voted  for  it ;  only  53  against 
it ;  and  the  moan  of  Protection  was  made. 

Still  the  Government  existed  only  on  sufferance.  There 
was  a  general  expectation  that  the  moment  Mr.  Disraeli  came 
to  set  out  a  genuine  financial  scheme  the  fate  of  the  Admmistra- 
tion  would  be  decided.  So  the  event  proved.  Mr.  Disraeli  made 
a  financial  statement  which  showed  remarkable  capacity  for 
dealing  with  figures.  The  skill  with  which  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  explained  his  measures  and  tossed  his  figures 
about  convmced  many  even  of  his  strongest  opponents  that  he 
had  the  capacity  to  make  a  good  budget  if  he  only  were 
allowed  to  do  so  by  the  conditions  of  his  party's  existence. 
But  his  Cabinet  had  come  into  office  under  special  obligations 
to  the  country  party  and  the  farmers.  They  could  not  avoid 
making  some  experiment  in  the  way  of  special  legislation  for 
the  farmers.  They  had  at  the  very  least  to  put  on  an  appear- 
ance of  doing  something  for  them.  When  Mr.  Disraeli  under- 
took to  favour  the  country  interest  and  the  farmers,  he  must 
have  known  only  too  well  that  he  was  setting  all  the  Free 
Traders  and  Peelites  against  him ;  and  he  knew  at  the  same  time 
that  if  he  neglected  the  country  party  he  was  cutting  the  ground 
from  beneath  his  feet.  The  principle  of  his  budget  was  the 
reduction  of  the  malt  duties  and  the  increase  of  the  inhabited 
house  duty.  That  reduction  created  a  deficit,  in  order  to 
supply  which  the  inhabited  house  duty  had  to  be  doubled.  The 
scheme  was  a  complete  failure.  The  farmers  did  not  care  much 
about  the  concession  which  had  been  made  in  their  favour ; 
those  who  would  have  had  to  pay  for  it  in  double  taxation  were 
bitterly  indignant.  The  Whigs,  the  Free  Traders,  the  Peelites, 
and  such  independent  members  or  unattached  members  as  Mr. 
Lowe  and  Mr.  Bernal  Osborne  all  fell  on  Mr.  Disraeli.  It 
became  a  combat  a  outrance.  It  well  suited  Mr.  Disraeli's 
peculiar  temperament.  During  the  whole  of  his  Parlia- 
mentary career  he  never  fought  so  well  as  when  he  was 
free  to  indulge  to  the  full  the  courage  of  despair. 

The  debate  was  one  of  the  finest  of  its  kind  ever  heard  in 

Parliament  during  our  time.     The  excitement  on  both  sides 

|wa-<?  intense.     The  rivalry  was  hot  and  eager.     Mr.  Disraeli 

was  animated  by  all  the  power  of    desperation,   and  was 


128         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.       ch.  X. 

evidently  in  a  mood  neither  to  give  nor  to  take  quarter.  The 
House  had  hardly  heard  the  concluding  word  of  Disraeli's  bitter 
and  impassioned  speech,  when  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
Mr.  Gladstone  leaped  to  his  feet  to  answer  him.  Then  began 
that  long  Parliamentary  duel  which  only  knew  a  truce  Avhen, 
at  the  close  of  the  session  of  187G,  Mr.  Disraeli  crossed  the 
threshold  of  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  last  time,  thence- 
forward to  take  his  place  among  the  peers  as  Lord  Beacons- 
field.  The  rivalry  of  this  first  heated  and  eventful  night  was 
a  splendid  display.  Those  who  had  thought  it  impossible  that 
any  impression  could  be  made  upon  the  House  after  the  speech 
of  Mr.  Disraeli,  had  to  acknowledge  that  a  yet  greater  im- 
pression was  produced  by  the  unprepared  reply  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone. The  House  divided  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  the  Government  were  left  in  a  minority  of  nineteen.  That 
day  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry  was  formally  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Queen.  In  a  few  days  after,  the  Coalition  Ministry 
was  formed.  Lord  Aberdeen  was  Prime  Minister ;  Lord  John 
Bussell  took  the  Foreign  Office ;  Lord  Palmerston  became  Home 
Secretary ;  Mr.  Gladstone  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 
The  public  were  a  good  deal  surprised  that  Lord  Palmerston 
had  taken  such  a  place  as  that  of  Home  Secretary.  His 
name  had  been  identified  with  the  foreign  policy  of  England, 
and  it  was  not  supposed  that  he  felt  the  slightest  interest 
in  the  ordinary  business  of  the  Home  Department.  But 
Palmerston  would  not  consent  to  be  Foreign  Secretary  on 
any  terms  but  his  own,  and  these  terms  were  then  out  of  the 
question. 

The  principal  interest  felt  in  the  new  Government  was 
centred  in  the  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  still  a  young  man  in  the  Parliamentary  sense 
at  least.  He  was  but  forty-three.  His  career  had  been  in 
every  way  remarkable.  He  had  entered  public  life  at  a  very 
early  age.  He  had  been  a  distinguished  debater  in  the  House 
of  Commons  ever  since  he  was  one-and-twenty.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  born  in  Liverpool,  and  was  the  son  of  Sir  John 
Gladstone,  a  Scotchman,  who  founded  a  great  house  in  the 
seaport  of  the  Mersey.  He  entered  Parliament  when  very 
young  as  a  protege  of  the  Newcastle  family,  and  he  soon 
faithfully  attached  himself  to  Sir  Eobert  Peel.  His  knowledge 
of  finance,  his  thorough  appreciation  of  the  various  needs  of  a 
nation's  commerce  and  business,  his  middle-class  origin,  all 
brought  him  into  natural  affinity  with  his  great  leader.     He 


CH.  X.  PALMERSTON,  129 

became  a  Free  Trader  with  Peel.  He  was  not  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  oddly  enough,  during  the  session  when  the  Free 
Trade  battle  was  fought  and  won.  As  he  had  changed  his 
opinions  with  his  leader,  he  felt  a  reluctance  to  ask  the  support 
of  the  Newcastle  family  for  the  borough  which  he  had  pre- 
viously represented  by  virtue  of  their  influence.  But  except  for 
that  short  interval  his  whole  career  may  be  pronounced  one 
long  Parliamentary  success.  He  was  from  the  very  outset 
recognised  as  a  brilliant  debater,  and  as  one  who  promised  to 
be  an  orator ;  but  the  first  really  great  speech  made  by  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  the  reply  to  Mr.  Disraeli  on  the  memorable  December 
morning  which  we  have  just  described.  That  speech  put  him 
in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  English  orators.  Then  perhaps 
he  first  showed  to  the  full  the  one  great  quality  in  which  as  a 
Parliamentary  orator  he  has  never  had  a  rival  in  our  time  :  the 
readiness  which  seems  to  require  no  preparation ,  but  can  mar- 
shal all  its  arguments  as  if  by  instinct  at  a  given  moment, 
and  the  fluency  which  can  pour  out  the  most  eloquent  language 
as  freely  as  though  it  were  but  the  breath  of  the  nostrils. 
When,  shortly  after  the  formation  of  the  Coalition  Ministry, 
Mr.  Gladstone  delivered  his  first  budget,  it  was  regarded  as  a 
positive  curiosity  of  financial  exposition.  It  was  a  perform 
ance  that  belonged  to  the  department  of  the  fine  arts.  The 
speech  occupied  several  hours,  and  assuredly  no  listener 
wished  it  the  shorter  by  a  single  sentence.  Each  time  that  he 
essayed  the  same  task  subsequently  he  accomplished  just  the 
same  success.  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  oratorical  qualification  was 
his  exquisite  voice.  Such  a  voice  would  make  common-place 
seem  interesting  and  lend  something  of  fascination  to  dulness 
itself.  It  was  singularly  pure,  clear,  resonant,  and  sweet.  The 
orator  never  seemed  to  use  the  slightest  effort  or  strain  in  filling 
any  hall  and  reaching  the  ear  of  the  farthest  among  the 
audience.  It  was  not  a  loud  voice  or  of  great  volume ;  but 
strong,  vibrating,  and  silvery.  The  words  were  always  aided 
by  energetic  action  and  by  the  deep  gleaming  eyes  of  the 
orator.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  his  wonderful  gift  of 
words  sometimes  led  him  astray.  It  was  often  such  a  fluency 
as  that  of  a  torrent  on  which  the  orator  was  carried  away. 
Gladstone  had  to  pay  for  his  fluency  by  being  too  fluent. 
Sometimes  he  involved  his  sentence  in  parenthesis  within 
parenthesis  until  the  ordinary  listener  began  to  think  extrica- 
tion an  impossibility ;  but  the  orator  never  failed  to  unravel 
6^ 


130       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       ch.  X. 

all  the  entanglements  and  to  bring  the  passage  out  to  a  clear 
and  legitimate  conclusion. 

Often,  however,  this  superb  exuberant  rush  of  words  added 
indescribable  strength  to  the  eloquence  of  the  speaker.  In 
passages  of  indignant  remonstrance  or  denunciation,  when 
word  followed  word,  and  stroke  came  do"wn  upon  stroke,  with 
a  wealth  of  resource  that  seemed  inexhaustible,  the  very 
fluency  and  variety  of  the  speaker  overwhelmed  his  audience. 
Interruption  only  gave  him  a  new  stimulus,  and  appeared  to 
supply  him  with  fresh  resources  of  argument  and  illustration. 
His  retorts  leaped  to  his  lips.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  not  much 
humour  of  the  playful  kind,  but  he  had  a  certain  focce  of 
sarcastic  and  scornful  rhetoric.  He  was  always  terribly  in 
earnest.  Whether  the  subject  were  great  or  small,  he  threw 
his  whole  soul  into  it.  Once,  in  addressing  a  schoolboy 
gathering,  he  told  his  young  listeners  that  if  a  boy  ran  he 
ought  always  to  run  as  fast  as  he  could ;  if  he  jumped,  he 
ought  always  to  jump  as  far  as  he  could.  He  illustrated  his 
maxim  in  his  own  career.  He  had  no  idea  apparently  of  run- 
ning or  jumping  in  such  measure  as  happened  to  please  the 
fancy  of  the  moment.  He  always  exercised  his  splendid 
powers  to  the  uttermost  strain.  Probably  no  one,  past  or  pre- 
sent, had  in  combination  so  many  gifts  of  voice,  manner, 
fluency  and  argument,  style,  reason  and  passion,  as  Mr. 
Gladstone. 

Mr.  Gladstone  grew  slowly  into  Liberal  convictions.  At 
the  time  when  he  joined  the  Coalition  Ministry  he  was  still 
regarded  as  one  who  had  scarcely  left  the  camp  of  Toryism, 
and  who  had  only  joined  that  Ministry  because  it  was  a  coali- 
tion. Years  after  he  was  applied  to  by  the  late  Lord  Derby 
to  join  a  Ministry  formed  by  him  ;  and  it  was  not  supposed 
that  there  was  anything  unreasonable  in  the  proposition.  The 
first  impulse  towards  Liberal  principles  was  given  to  his  mind 
probably  by  his  change  with  his  leader  from  Protection  to 
Free  Trade.  When  a  man  like  Gladstone  saw  that  his 
traditional  principles  and  those  of  his  party  had  broken  down 
in  any  one  direction  it  was  but  natural  that  he  should  begin  to 
question  their  endurance  in  other  directions.  When  Mr. 
Gladstone  came  to  be  convinced  that  there  was  no  such  law  as 
the  Protection  principle  at  all ;  that  it  was  a  mere  sham ; 
that  to  believe  in  it  was  to  be  guilty  of  an  economic  heresy — 
then  it  was  impossible  for  him  not  to  begin  questioning  the 
genuineness  of  the  whole  system  of  pohtical  thought  of  which 


CH.  X.  PAT.MERSrON,  131 

it  formed  but  a  part.  Perhaps,  too,  he  was  impelled  towards 
Liberal  principles  at  home  by  seeing  what  the  effects  of 
opposite  doctrines  had  been  abroad.  He  rendered  memorable 
service  to  the  Liberal  cause  of  Europe  by  his  eloquent  protest 
against  the  brutal  treatment  of  Baron  Poerio  and  other 
Liberals  of  Naples  who  were  imprisoned  by  the  Neapolitan 
king  — a  protest  which  Garibaldi  declared  to  have  sounded  the 
first  trumpet-call  of  Italian  liberty.  In  rendering  service  to 
Liberalism  and  to  Europe  he  rendered  service  also  to  his  own 
intelligence.  He  helped  to  set  free  his  own  spirit  as  well  as 
the  Neapolitan  people.  The  common  taunts  addressed  to 
public  men  who  have  changed  their  opinions  were  hardly  ever 
applied  to  him.  Even  his  enemies  felt  that  the  one  idea 
always  inspired  him — a  conscientious  anxiety  to  do  the  right 
thing.  The  worst  thing  that  was  said  of  him  was  that 
he  was  too  impulsive,  and  that  his  intelligence  was  too 
restless.  He  was  an  essayist,  a  critic,  a  Homeric  scholar  ; 
a  dilettante  in  art,  music,  and  old  china  ;  he  was  a  theological 
controversialist ;  he  was  a  political  economist,  a  financier,  a 
practical  administrator  whose  gift  of  mastering  details  has 
hardly  ever  been  equalled ;  he  was  a  statesman  and  an  orator. 
No  man  could  attempt  so  many  things  and  not  occasionally 
make  himself  the  subject  of  a  sneer.  The  intense  gravity  and 
earnestness  of  Gladstone's  mind  always,  however,  saved  him 
from  the  special  penalty  of  such  versatility. 

As  yet,  however,  he  is  only  the  young  statesman  who  wag 
the  other  day  the  hope  of  the  moi\e  solemn  and  solid  Con- 
Bervatives,  and  in  whom  they  have  not  even  yet  entirely  ceased 
to  put  some  faith.  The  Coalition  Ministry  was  so  formed 
that  it  was  not  supposed  a  man  necessarily  nailed  his  colours 
to  any  mast  when  he  joined  it.  More  than  one  of  Gladstone's 
earliest  friends  and  political  associates  had  a  part  in  it.  The 
Ministry  might  undoubtedly  be  called  an  Administration  of  All 
the  Talents.  Except  the  late  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  it 
included  almost  every  man  of  real  ability  who  belonged  to 
either  of  the  two  great  parties  of  the  State.  The  Manchester 
School  had,  of  course,  no  place  there  ;  but  they  were  not  likely 
just  yet  to  be  recognised  as  constituting  one  of  the  elements 
out  of  which  even  a  Coalition  Ministry  might  be  composed. 


132        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XL 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

SHE   CEIMEAN   WAR, 

For  forty  years  England  had  been  at  peace.  There  had 
indeed  been  Httle  wars  here  and  there  with  some  of  her 
Asiatic  and  African  neighbours,  but  from  Waterloo  downward 
England  knew  no  real  war.  The  new  generation  were  grow- 
ing up  in  a  happy  belief  that  wars  w^ere  things  of  the  past  for 
us,  like  the  wearing  of  armour.  During  all  the  convulsions 
of  the  Continent,  England  had  remained  undisturbed.  Anew 
school  as  well  as  a  new  generation  had  sprung  up.  Thig 
school,  full  of  faith  but  full  of  practical  shrew^d  logic  as  well, 
was  teaching  with  great  eloquence  and  effect  that  the  practice 
of  settling  international  controversy  by  the  sword  was  costly, 
barbarous,  and  blundering  as  well  as  wicked.  The  practice  of 
the  duel  in  England  had  utterly  gone  out.  Why  then  should 
it  be  unreasonable  to  believe  that  war  among  nations  might 
soon  become  equally  obsolete  ? 

Such  certainly  was  the  faith  of  a  great  many  intelligent 
persons  at  the  time  when  the  Coalition  Ministry  w^as  formed. 
The  majority  tacitly  acquiesced  in  the  belief  without  thinking 
much  about  it.  They  had  never  in  their  time  seen  England 
engaged  in  European  war ;  and  it  was  natural  to  assume  that 
what  they  had  never  seen  they  were  never  likely  to  see.  Suddenly 
all  this  happy  quiet  faith  was  disturbed  by  the  Eastern  'question ' 
— the  question  of  what  to  do  with  the  East  of  Europe.  It  was 
certain  that  things  could  not  remain  as  they  then  were,  and 
nothing  else  was  certain.  The  Ottoman  power  hadbeen  settled 
during  many  centuries  in  the  South-east  of  Europe.  The 
Turk  had  many  of  the  strong  qualities  and  even  the  virtues  of 
a  great  warlike  conqueror ;  but  he  had  no  capacity  or  care  for 
the  arts  of  peace.  He  never  thought  of  assimilating  himself 
to  those  whom  he  had  conquered,  or  them  to  him.  The  Turks 
were  not,  as  a  rule,  oppressive  to  the  races  that  lived  under 
them.  They  were  not  habitual  persecutors  of  the  faiths  they 
doemed  heretical.  Every  now  and  then,  indeed,  some  sudden 
fi-irce  outburst  of  fanatical  cruelty  towards  some  of  the  subject 
sects  horrified  Europe,  and  reminded  her  that  the  conqueror 
who  had  settled  himself  down  in  her  south-eastern  corner  wass 
still  a  barbarian  who  had  no  right  or  place  in  civilised  life. 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  133 

But  as  a  rule  the  Turk  was  disposed  to  look  with  disdainful 
composure  on  what  he  considered  the  religious  follies  of  the 
heretical  races  who  did  not  believe  in  the  Prophet.  They  were 
objects  of  his  scornful  pity  rather  than  of  his  anger. 

At  one  time  there  is  no  doubt  that  all  the  powers  of  civilised 
Europe  would  gladly  have  seen  the  Turk  driven  out  of  our 
Continent.  But  the  Turk  was  powerful  for  a  long  series  of 
generations,  and  it  seemed  for  a  while  rather  a  question 
whether  he  would  not  send  the  Europeans  out  of  their  own 
grounds.  When  he  began  to  decay,  and  when  his  aggressive 
strength  was  practically  all  gone,  it  might  have  been  thought 
that  the  Western  Powers  would  then  have  managed  some- 
how to  get  rid  of  him.  But  in  the  meantime  the  condition  of 
Europe  had  greatly  changed.  No  one  not  actually  subject  to 
the  Turk  was  afraid  of  him  any  more  ;  and  other  States  had 
arisen  strong  for  aggression.  The  uncertainties  of  these 
States  as  to  the  intentions  of  their  neighbours  and  each  other 
proved  a  better  bulwark  for  the  Turks  than  any  warlike  strength 
of  their  own  could  any  longer  have  furnished.  The  growth  of 
the  Eussian  empire  was  of  itself  enough  to  change  the  whole 
conditions  of  the  problem. 

Nothing  in  our  times  has  been  more  remarkable  than  the 
sudden  growth  of  Russia.  A  few  generations  ago  Eussia  was 
literally  an  inland  State.  She  was  shut  up  in  the  heart  of 
Eastern  Europe  as  if  in  a  prison.  The  genius,  the  craft  and 
the  audacity  of  Peter  the  Great  first  broke  the  narrow  bounds 
set  to  the  Eussia  of  his  day,  and  extended  her  frontier  to  the  sea. 
He  was  followed  after  a  reign  or  two  by  the  greatest  woman 
probably  who  ever  sat  on  a  throne,  Elizabeth  of  England  not 
even  excepted.  Catherine  the  Second  so  ably  followed  the 
example  of  Peter  the  Great,  that  she  extended  the  Eussian  fron- 
tiers in  directions  which  he  had  not  had  opportunity  to  stretch 
to.  By  the  time  her  reign  w^as  done,  Eussia  was  one  of  the 
great  powers  of  Europe,  entitled  to  enter  into  negotiations  on 
a  footing  of  equality  with  the  proudest  States  of  the  Conti- 
nent. Unlike  Turkey,  Eussia  had  always  shown  a  yearning 
after  the  latest  developments  of  science  and  of  civilisation. 
A  nation  that  tries  to  appear  more  civilised  than  it  really  is 
ends  very  often  by  becoming  more  civilised  than  its  neigh- 
bours ever  thought  it  likely  to  be. 

The  wars  against  Napoleon  brought  Eussia  into  close 
alliance  with  England,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  other  Euro- 
pean   States   of  old   and   advanced   civilisation.       She   waa 


134      ^   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH  xi. 

recognised  as  a  valuable  friend  and  a  most  formidable 
enemy.  Gradually  it  became  evident  that  she  could  be 
aggressive  as  well  as  conservative.  After  a  while  it  grew  to 
be  a  fixed  conviction  in  the  mind  of  the  Liberalism  of  Western 
Europe  that  Eussia  was  the  gi'eatest  obstacle  then  existing  in 
civilisation  to  the  spread  of  popular  ideas.  The  Turk  was 
comparatively  harmless  in  that  sense.  He  was  w^ell  content 
now,  so  much  had  his  ancient- ambition  shrunk  and  his  ancient 
war  spirit  gone  out,  if  his  strong  and  restless  neighbour  would 
only  let  him  alone.  But  he  was  brought  at  more  than  one  point 
into  especial  collision  with  Eussia.  Many  of  the  provinces  he 
ruled  over  in  European  Turkey  were  of  Sclavonian  race,  and 
of  the  religion  of  the  Greek  Church.  They  were  thus  affined 
by  a  double  tie  to  the  Eussian  people,  and  therefore  the 
manner  in  which  Turkey  dealt  with  those  provinces  was  a 
constant  source  of  dispute  between  Eussia  and  her.  The 
Eussians  are  a  profoundly  religious  people.  A  Eussian 
emperor  could  not  be  loved  if  he  did  not  declare  his  undying 
resolve  to  be  the  protector  of  the  Christian  populations  of 
Turkey.  Much  of  this  was  probably  sincere  and  single-minded 
on  the  part  of  the  Eussian  people  and  most  of  the  Eussian 
politicians.  But  the  other  States  of  Europe  began  to  suspect 
that  mingled  up  with  benign  ideas  of  protecting  the  Christian 
populations  of  Turkey  might  be  a  desire  to  extend  the  frontier 
of  Eussia  to  the  southward  in  a  new  direction.  Europe  had 
seen  by  what  craft  and  what  audacious  enterprises  Eussia  had 
managed  to  extend  her  empire  to  the  sea  in  other  quarters  ;  it 
began  to  be  commonly  believed  that  her  next  object  of  ambition 
would  be  the  possession  of  Constantinople  and  the  Bosphorus. 
It  was  reported  that  a  will  of  Peter  the  Great  had  left  it  as  an 
injunction  to  his  successors  to  turn  all  the  efforts  of  their 
policy  towards  that  object.  The  particular  document  which 
was  believed  to  be  a  will  of  Peter  the  Great  enjoined  on  all 
succeeding  Eussian  sovereigns  never  to  relax  in  the  extension 
of  their  territory  northward  on  the  Baltic  and  southward  on 
the  Black  Sea  shores,  and  to  encroach  as  far  as  possible  in  the 
direction  of  Constantinople  and  the  Indies.  It  therefore 
seemed  to  be  the  natural  business  of  other  European  powers  to 
see  that  the  defects  of  the  Ottoman  Government,  such  as  they 
were,  should  not  be  made  an  excuse  for  helping  Eussia  to 
secure  the  objects  of  her  special  ambition.  England  of  course, 
above  all  the  rest,  had  an  interest  in  watching  over  every 
movement  that  threatened  in  any  way  to  interfere  with  the 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR,  135 

highway  to  India  ;  still  more  her  peaceful  and  secure  posses- 
sion of  India  itself.  England,  Eussia  and  Turkey  were  alike 
m  one  respect :  they  were  all  Asiatic  as  well  as  European 
powers.  But  the  days  of  Turkey's  interfering  with  any  great 
State  were  long  over.  On  the  contrary,  there  seemed  some- 
thing like  a  natural  antagonism  between  England  and  Eussia 
in  the  East.  The  Eussians  were  extending  their  frontier 
towards  that  of  our  Indian  empire.  Our  officers  and  diplo- 
matic emissaries  reported  that  they  were  continually  confronted 
by  the  evidences  of  Eussian  intrigue  in  Central  Asia.  We  have 
already  seen  how  much  influence  the  real  or  supposed  mtrigues 
of  Eussia  had  in  directing  our  policy  in  Afghanistan.  It  was 
in  great  measure  out  of  these  alarms  that  there  grew  up 
among  certain  statesmen  and  classes  in  this  country  the  con- 
viction that  the  mamtenance  of  the  integrity  of  the  Turkish 
empire  was  part  of  the  national  duty  of  England. 

Sharply  defined,  the  condition  of  things  was  this  :  Eussia, 
by  reason  of  her  sympathy  of  religion  or  race  with  Turkey's 
Christian  populations,  was  brought  into  chronic  antagonism  with 
Turkey  ;  England,  by  reason  of  her  Asiatic  possessions,  was  kept 
in  just  the  same  state  of  antagonism  to  Eussia.  A  crisis  at  last 
arose  that  threw  England  into  direct  hostility  with  Eussia. 

That  crisis  came  about  during  the  later  years  of  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Nicholas.  He  saw  its  opening,  but  not  its 
close.  Nicholas  was  a  man  of  remarkable  character.  He 
had  many  of  the  ways  of  an  Asiatic  despot.  He  had  a  strong 
ambition,  a  fierce  and  fitful  temper,  a  daring  but  sometimes 
too  a  vacillating  will.  He  had  many  magnanimous  and  noble 
qualities,  and  moods  of  sweetness  and  gentleness.  A  certain 
excitability  ran  through  the  temperament  of  all  his  house, 
which,  in  some  of  its  members,  broke  into  actual  madness. 
The  Emperor  at  one  time  was  very  popular  in  England.  He 
had  visited  the  Queen,  and  he  had  impressed  everyone  by  his 
noble  presence,  his  lofty  stature,  his  singular  personal  beauty, 
his  blended  dignity  and  familiarity  of  manner.  He  talked  as 
if  he  had  no  higher  ambition  than  to  be  in  friendly  alliance 
with  England.  When  he  wished  to  convey  his  impression 
of  the  highest  degree  of  personal  loyalty  and  honour,  he 
always  spoke  of  '  the  word  of  an  English  gentleman.'  There 
can,  indeed,  be  little  doubt  that  the  Emperor  was  sincerely 
anxious  to  keep  on  terms  of  cordial  friendship  with  England ; 
and,  what  is  more,  had  no  idea  until  the  very  last  that  the 
way  he  was  w^alking  was  one  which  England  could  not  con- 
sent to  tread.     His  brother  and  predecessor  had  been  m  close 


136       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  xi. 

alliance  with  England ;  his  o-\vn  ideal  hero  was  the  Duke  of 
Wellington ;  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that  when  the  division 
of  the  spoils  of  Turkey  came  about,  England  and  he  could 
best  consult  for  their  own  interests  and  the  peace  of  the  world 
by  making  the  appropriation  a  matter  of  joint  arrangement. 

When  he  visited  England  in  1844,  for  the  second  time, 
Nicholas  had  several  conversations  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
and  with  Lord  Aberdeen,  then  Foreign  Secretary,  about 
Turkey  and  her  prospects,  and  what  would  be  likely  to  happen 
in  the  case  of  her  dissolution,  which  he  believed  to  be  im- 
minent. When  he  returned  to  Russia  he  had  a  memorandum 
drawn  up  by  Count  Nesselrode,  his  Chancellor,  embodying  the 
views  which,  according  to  Nicholas's  impressions,  were  enter- 
tained alike  by  him  and  by  the  British  statesmen  with  whom 
he  had  been  conversing.  The  memorandum  spoke  of  the 
imperative  necessity  of  Turkey  being  made  to  keep  her  engage- 
ments and  to  treat  her  Christian  subjects  with  toleration  and 
mildness.  On  such  conditions  it  was  laid  down  that  England 
and  Russia  must  alike  desire  her  preservation  ;  but  the  docu- 
ment proceeded  to  say  that  nevertheless  these  States  could 
not  conceal  from  themselves  the  fact  that  the  Ottoman 
empire  contained  within  itself  many  elements  of  dissolution, 
and  that  unforeseen  events  might  at  any  time  hasten  its 
fall.  '  In  the  uncertainty  which  hovers  over  the  future  a 
single  fundamental  idea  seems  to  admit  of  a  really  practical 
application  ;  that  is,  that  the  danger  which  may  result  from  a 
catastrophe  in  Turkey  will  be  much  diminished  if  in  the  event 
of  its  occurring  Russia  and  England  have  come  to  an  under- 
standing as  to  the  course  to  be  taken  by  them  in  common. 
That  understanding  will  be  the  more  beneficial  inasmuch  as 
it  will  have  the  full  assent  of  Austria,  between  whom  and 
Russia  there  already  exists  an  entire  accord.'  This  document 
was  sent  to  London  and  kept  in  the  archives  of  the  Foreign 
Office.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  evidently  believed  that  his 
views  were  shared  by  English  statesmen.  Therefore,  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  the  English  statesmen  should  have  listened 
to  Nicholas  without  saying  something  very  disLinct  to  show 
that  they  were  not  admitting  or  accepting  any  combination  of 
purpose  ;  or  that  they  should  have  received  his  memorandum 
without  some  clear  disclaimer  of  their  being  in  any  way  bound 
by  its  terms.  We  could  scarcely  have  been  too  emphatic  or 
too  precise  in  convoying  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  our  deter- 
mination to  have  nothing  to  do  witli  any  such  conspiracy. 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN   WAR,  137 

Time  went  on,  and  the  Emperor  thought  he  saw  an  occasion 
for  still  more  clearly  explaining  his  plans  and  for  reviving  the 
supposed  understanding  with  England.  Lord  Aberdeen  came 
into  office  as  Prime  Minister  of  this  country ;  Lord  Aberdeen, 
who  was  Foreign  Secretary  when  Nicholas  was  in  England 
in  1844.  L.1  January  1853,  the  Emperor  had  several  con- 
versations with  our  minister,  Sir  Gr.  Hamilton  Seymour,  about 
the  future  of  Turkey  and  the  arrangements  it  might  be 
necessary  for  England  and  Eussia  to  make  regarding  it.  The 
conversations  were  renewed  again  and  again  afterwards.  They 
all  tended  towards  the  one  purpose.  The  Emperor  urged  that 
England  and  Eussia  ought  to  make  arrangements  beforehand 
as  to  the  inheritance  of  the  Ottoman  in  Europe — before  what 
he  regarded  as  the  approaching  and  inevitable  day  when 
the  *  sick  man ' — so  the  Emperor  called  Turkey — must  come 
to  die.  If  only  England  and  Eussia  could  arrive  at  an  mider- 
standing  on  the  subject,  he  declared  that  it  was  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  him  what  other  powers  might  think  or  say. 
He  spoke  of  the  several  millions  of  Christians  in  Turkey 
whose  rights  he  was  called  upon  to  watch  over,  and  he  re- 
marked— the  remark  is  of  significance — that  the  right  of 
watching  over  them  was  secured  to  him  by  treaty.  The 
Emperor  was  evidently  under  the  impression  that  the  in- 
terests of  England  and  of  Eussia  were  united  in  this  pro- 
posed transaction.  He  had  no  idea  of  anything  but  the  most 
perfect  frankness  so  far  as  we  were  concerned.  But  the 
English  Government  never,  after  the  disclosures  of  Sir 
Hamilton  Seymour,  put  any  faith  in  Nicholas.  They  regarded 
him  as  nothing  better  than  a  plotter.  The  English  Minister 
and  the  English  Government  could  onlyanswer  the  Emperor's 
overtures  by  saying  that  they  did  not  think  it  quite  usual  to 
enter  into  arrangements  for  the  spoliation  of  a  friendly  power, 
and  that  England  had  no  desire  to  succeed  to  any  of  the 
possessions  of  Turkey. 

The  conversations  with  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour  formed  but 
an  episode  in  the  history  of  the  events  that  were  then  going  on. 
There  had  long  been  going  on  a  dispute  about  the  Holy  Places 
in  Palestine.  The  claims  of  the  Greek  Church  and  those  of 
the  Latin  Church  were  in  antagonism  there.  The  Emperor  of 
Eussia  was  the  protector  of  the  Greek  Church  ;  the  Kings  of 
France  had  long  had  the  Latin  Church  under  their  protection. 
The  Holy  Places  to  which  the  Latins  raised  a  claim  were 
the    great    Chm'ch    in    Bethlehem;    the   Sanctuary  of  the 


138       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xi. 

Nativity ;  the  tomb  of  the  Virgin ;  the  Stone  of  Anointing ; 
the  Seven  Arches  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.  In  the  reign  of  Francis  the  First  of  France,  a 
treaty  was  made  with  the  Sultan  by  which  France  was 
acknowledged  the  protector  of  the  Holy  Places  in  Palestine, 
and  of  the  monks  of  the  Latin  Church  who  took  on  them- 
selves the  care  of  the  sacred  monuments  and  memorials.  P)Ut 
the  Greek  Church  afterwards  obtained  firmans  from  the 
Sultan  ;  and  the  Greeks  claimed  on  the  strength  of  these  con- 
cessions that  they  had  as  good  a  right  as  the  Latins  to  take 
care  of  the  Holy  Places.  Disputes  were  always  arising,  and 
of  course  these  were  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  France  was 
supposed  to  be  concerned  in  the  protection  of  one  set  of  dis- 
putants and  Kussia  in  that  of  another.  The  claims  at  length 
came  to  be  identified  with  the  States  which  respectively  pro- 
tected them.  An  advantage  of  the  smallest  kind  gained  by 
the  Latins  was  viewed  as  an  insult  to  Kussia ;  a  concession  to 
the  Greeks  was  a  snub  to  France. 

It  was  France  which  first  stirred  the  controversy  in  the 
time  just  before  the  Crimean  War.  The  French  ambassador, 
M.  de  Lavalette,  is  said  to  have  threatened  that  a  French  fleet 
should  appear  off  Jaffa,  and  even  hinted  at  a  French  occupa- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  '  when,'  as  he  significantly  put  it,  '  we 
should  have  all  the  sanctuaries.'  The  cause  of  all  this  energy 
is  not  far  to  seek.  The  Prince  President  had  only  just  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  himself  to  be  installed  as  Emperor  ;  and 
he  was  very  anxious  to  distract  the  attention  of  Frenchmen 
from  domestic  politics  to  some  showy  and  startling  policy 
abroad.  This  controversy  between  the  Church  of  the  East 
and  the  Church  of  the  West  tempted  him  into  activity  as  one 
that  seemed  likely  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  displaying 
the  power  of  France  and  of  the  new  system  without  any 
very  great  danger  or  responsibility. 

The  key  of  the  whole  controversy  out  of  which  the  Eastern 
war  arose,  and  out  of  which  indeed  all  subsequent  complications 
in  the  East  came  as  well,  was  said  to  be  found  in  a  clause  of 
the  Treaty  of  Kutclmk-Kainardji.  The  Treaty  of  Kutchuk- 
Kainardji  was  made  on  July  10,  1774,  between  the  Otto- 
man Porte  and  Catherine  11.  of  Eussia  after  a  war  in 
which  the  arms  of  the  great  Empress  had  been  completely 
victorious.  The  seventh  clause  declared  that  the  Sublime 
Porte  promised  *  to  protect  constantly  the  Christian  religion 
and  its   churches;    and   also  to  allow   the  minister  of  the 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  1 39 

Imperial  Court  of  Eussia  to  make  on  all  occasions  represen- 
tations as  well  in  favour  of  the  new  church  in  Constantinople, 
of  which  mention  will  be  made  in  the  fourteenth  article,  as  in 
favour  of  those  who  officiate  therein,  promising  to  take  such 
representations  into  due  consideration  as  being  made  by  a  con- 
fidential functionary  of  a  neighbouring  and  sincerely  friendly 
power. '     Not  much  possibility  of  misunderstanding  about  these 
words,  one  might  feel  inclined  to  say.     We  turn  then  to  the 
fourteenth  article  alluded  to,  in  order  to  discover  if  in  its 
wording  lies  the  perplexity  of  meaning  which  led  to  such  mo- 
mentous and  calamitous  results.     We  find  that  by  this  article 
it  is  simply  permitted  to  the  Court  of  Kussia  to  build  a  public 
church  of  the  Greek  rite  in  the  Galata  quarter  of  Constanti- 
nople, in  addition  to  the  chapel  built  in  tiie  house  of  the  min- 
ister ;  and  it  is  declared  that  the  new  church  *  shall  be  always 
under  the  protection  of  the  ministers  of  the  (Kussian)  empire, 
and  shielded  from  all  obstruction  and  all  damage.'     Here,  then, 
we  seem  to  have  two  clauses  of  the  simplest  meaning  and  by 
no  means  of  iirst-class  importance.     The  latter  clause  allows 
Bussia  to  build  a  new  church  in  Constantinople ;  the  former 
allows  the  Eussian  minister  to  make  representations  to  the 
Porte  on  behalf  of  the  church  and  of  those  who  officiate  in  it. 
What  difference  of  opinion,  it  may  be  asked,  could  possibly 
arise  ?     The  difference  was  this  :  Eussia  claimed  a  right  of  pro- 
tectorate over  all  the  Christians  of  the  Greek  Church  in  Turkey 
as  the  consequence  of  the  seventh  clause  of  the  treaty.     She 
insisted  that  when  Turkey  gave  her  a  right  to  interfere  on 
behalf  of  the  worshippers  in  one  particular  church,  the  same 
right  extended  so  far  as  to  cover  all  the  worshippers  of  the  same 
denomination  in  every  part  of  the  Ottoman  dominions.     The 
great    object  of  Eussia  throughout  all  the  negotiations  that 
preceded  the  Crimean  War  was  to  obtain  from  the  Porte  an  ad- 
mission of  the  existence  of  such  a  protectorate.     Such  an  ac- 
knowledgment would,  in  fact,  have  made  the  Emperor  of  Eussia 
the  patron  and  all  but  the  ruler  of  by  far  the  larger  proportion 
of  the  populations  of  European  Turkey.     The  Sultan  would 
no  longer  have  been  master  in  his  own  dominions.     The  Greek 
Christians  would  naturally  have  regarded  the  Eussian  Em- 
peror's right  of  intervention  on  their  behalf  as  constituting  a 
protectorate  far  more  powerful  than  the  nominal  rule  of  the 
Sultan.     They  would  have  known  that  the  ultimate  decision 
of  any  dispute  in  which  they  were  concerned  rested  with  the 
Emperor,  and  not  with  the  Sultan  ;  and  they  would  soon  have 


I40       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OlFAT  TIMES.      CH.  XI. 

come  to  look  upon  the  Emperor,  and  not  the  Sultan,  as  their 
actual  sovereign. 

Now  it  does  not  seem  likely  on  the  face  of  things  that  any 
ruler  of  a  state  would  have  consented  to  hand  over  to  a  more 
powerful  foreign  monarch  such  a  right  over  the  great  majority 
of  his  subjects.  Still,  if  Turkey,  driven  to  her  last  defences, 
had  no  alternative  but  to  make  such  a  concession,  the  Emperors 
of  Eussia  could  not  be  blamed  for  insistinsf  that  it  should  be 
carried  out.  The  terms  of  the  article  in  the  treaty  itself  cer- 
tainly do  not  seem  to  admit  of  such  a  construction.  Whenever 
we  find  Eussia  putting  a  claim  into  plain  words,  we  find  Eng- 
land, through  her  ministers,  refusing  to  give  it  their  acknow- 
ledgment. Diplomacy,  therefore,  w^as  powerless  to  do  good 
during  all  the  protracted  negotiations  that  set  in,  before  the 
Crimean  War,  for  the  plain  reason  that  the  only  object  of  the 
Emperor  of  Eussia  in  entering  upon  negotiation  at  all  was 
one  which  the  other  European  powers  regarded  as  absolutely 
inadmissible. 

The  dispute  about  the  Holy  Places  was  easily  settled. 
The  Porte  cared  very  little  about  the  matter,  and  was  willing 
enough  to  come  to  any  fair  terms  by  which  the  whole  contro- 
versy could  be  got  rid  of.  But  the  demands  of  Eussia  went 
on  just  as  before.  Prince  Mentschikoff,  a  fierce,  rough  man, 
unable  or  unwilling  to  control  his  temper,  was  sent  with 
demands  to  Constantinople.  Mentschikoif  brought  his  pro- 
posals with  him  cut  and  dry  in  the  form  of  a  convention  which 
he  called  upon  Turkey  to  accept  without  more  ado.  Turkey 
refused,  and  Prince  Mentschikofi:  withdrew  in  real  or  affected 
rage,  and  presently  the  Emperor  Nicholas  sent  two  divisions 
of  his  army  across  the  Pruth  to  take  possession  of  the  Danubian 
principalities. 

Diplomacy,  however,  did  not  give  in  even  then.  A  note 
was  concocted  at  Vienna  which  Eussia  at  once  offered  to 
accept.  The  four  great  Powers  who  were  carrying  on  the 
business  of  mediation  were  at  first  quite  charmed  with  the 
note,  with  the  readiness  of  Eussia  to  accept  it,  and  with 
themselves ;  and  but  for  the  interposition  of  Lord  Stratford 
de  Eedcliffe,  our  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  who  showed 
great  acuteness  and  force  of  character  through  all  these  nego- 
tiations, it  seems  highly  probable  that  it  would  have  been 
agreed  to  by  all  tlie  parties  concerned.  Lord  Stratfoi-d.  liow- 
ever,  saw  plainly  that  the  note  was  a  virtual  concession  to 
Russia  of  all  that  she  specially  desired  to  have,  and  all  tliat 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  141 

Europe  was  unwilling  to  concede. to  her.  It  contained,  for 
instance,  words  which  declared  that  the  Government  of 
his  Majesty  the  Sultan  would  remain  'faithful  to  the  letter 
and  the  spirit  of  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaties  of  Kainardji 
and  of  Adrianople,  relative  to  the  protection  of  the  Christian 
religion.'  These  words,  in  a  note  drawn  up  for  the  purpose 
of  satisfying  the  Emperor  of  Eussia,  could  not  but  be 
understood  as  recognising  the  interpretation  of  the  Treaty 
of  Kainardji  on  which  Eussia  had  always  insisted.  The 
Eussian  Government  refused  to  accept  any  modifications. 

From  that  time  all  hopes  of  peace  were  over.  Our  troops 
were  moving  towards  Malta  ;  the  streets  of  London,  of  Liver- 
pool, of  Southampton,  and  other  towns,  were  ringing  with 
the  cheers  of  enthusiastic  crowds  gathered  together  to  watch 
the  marching  of  troops  destined  for  the  East.  Turkey  had 
actually  declared  war  against  Eussia.  We  had  known  so 
little  of  war  for  nearly  forty  years,  that  added  to  all  the  other 
emotions  which  the  coming  of  battle  must  bring  was  the 
mere  feeling  of  curiosity  as  to  the  sensation  produced  by 
a  state  of  war.  It  was  an  abstraction  to  the  living  genera- 
tion— a  thing  to  read  of  and  discuss  and  make  poetry  and 
romance  out  of;  but  they  could  not  yet  realise  what  itself 
was  like. 

Meantime  where  was  Lord  Palmerston  ?  He  of  all  men, 
one  would  think,  must  have  been  pleased  with  the  turn  things 
were  taking.  He  was  really  very  busy  all  this  time  in  his  new 
duties.  Lord  Palmerston  was  a  remarkably  efficient  and  suc- 
cessful Home  Secretary.  His  unceasing  activity  loved  to  show 
itself  in  whatever  department  he  might  be  called  upon  to 
occupy.  He  brought  to  the  somewhat  prosaic  duties  of  his 
new  office  all  the  energy  which  he  had  formerly  shown  in 
managing  revolutions  and  dictating  to  foreign  courts.  The 
ticket-of- leave  system  dates  from  the  time  of  his  administration. 
The  measure  to  abate  the  smoke  nuisance,  by  compelling  fac- 
tories under  penalties  to  consume  their  own  smoke,  is  also 
the  offspring  of  Palmerston's  activity  in  the  Home  Office. 
The  Factory  Acts  were  extended  by  him.  He  went  energeti- 
cally to  work  in  the  shutting  up  of  graveyards  in  the  metro- 
polis. He  was  acquiring  a  new  and  a  somewhat  odd 
reputation  in  his  way  of  answering  deputations  and  letters. 
Lord  Palmerston  was  always  civil  and  cordial ;  he  was  full  of 
a  peculiar  kind  of  fresh  common  sense,  and  always  ready  to 
apply  it  to  any  subject  whatever.     He  could  at  any  time  say 


142      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR    OWN  TIMES.       CH.  xi. 

some  racy  thing  which  set  the  pubhc  wondering  and  laughing. 
He  had  not  a  poetic  or  philosophic  mind.  In  clearing  his 
intelligence  from  all  that  he  would  have  called  prejudice  or 
superstition,  he  had  cleared  out  also  much  of  the  deeper  sym- 
pathetic faculty  which  enables  one  man  to  understand  the 
feelings  and  get  at  the  springs  of  conduct  in  the  breasts  of 
other  men.  No  one  can  doubt  that  his  jaunty  way  of  treating 
grave  and  disputed  subjects  offended  many  pure  and  simple 
minds.  Yet  it  was  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  mere  levity  dic- 
tated his  way  of  dealing  with  the  prejudices  of  others.  He 
had  often  given  the  question  his  deepest  attention,  and  come 
to  a  conclusion  with  as  much  thought  as  his  temperament 
would  have  allowed  to  any  subject.  The  difference  between 
him  and  graver  men  was  that  when  he  had  come  to  a  con- 
clusion seriously,  he  loved  to  express  his  views  humorously. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Palmerston  often  made  enemies 
by  his  seeming  levity  when  another  man  could  easily  have 
made  friends  by  saying  just  the  same  thing  in  grave  words. 
The  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  liked  him  because  he 
amused  them  and  made  them  laugh ;  and  they  thought  no 
more  of  the  matter. 

But  the  war  is  now  fairly  launched ;  and  Palmerston  is  to 
all  appearance  what  would  be  vulgarly  called  '  out  of  the 
swim.'  Every  eye  was  turned  to  him.  One  day  it  was 
given  out  that  Palmerston  had  actually  resigned.  It  was 
at  once  asserted  that  his  resignation  was  caused  by 
difference  of  opinion  between  him  and  his  colleagues  on  the 
Eastern  policy  of  the  Government.  But  on  the  other  hand 
it  was  as  stoutly  affirmed  that  the  difference  of  opinion  had 
only  to  do  with  the  new  Eeform  Bill  which  Lord  John 
Russell  was  preparing  to  introduce.  Few  people  in  England 
who  cared  anything  about  the  whole  question  believed 
that  at  such  a  time  Lord  Palmerston  would  have  gone 
out  of  office  because  he  did  not  quite  like  the  details  of 
a  Eeform  Bill,  or  that  the  Cabinet  would  have  obstinately 
clung  to  such  a  scheme  just  then  in  spite  of  his  opposition. 
When  Lord  Palmerston  resumed  his  place  in  the  Ministry, 
the  public  at  large  felt  certain  that  the  war  «rpirit  was  now  at 
last  to  have  its  way,  and  that  the  dnllyings  of  the  peace- 
lovers  were  over.  Nor  was  England  long  left  to  guess  at 
the  reason  why  Lord  Palmerston  had  so  suddenly  resigned 
his  office,  and  so  suddenly  returned  to  it.  A  great  disaster  liad 
fallen  upon  Turkey.     Her  fleet  had  been  destroyed  bv  thf*  "Rua- 


CH.  XI.  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  143 

sians  at  Sinope,  a  considerable  seaport  town  and  naval  station 
belonging  to  Turkey  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea, 
on  November  30,  1853.  The  attack  was  not  treacherous,  but 
openly  made  ;  not  sudden,  but  clearly  announced  by  previous 
acts.  Kussia  and  Turkey  were  not  only  formally  but  actually 
at  war.  The  Turks  were  the  first  to  begin  the  actual  military 
operations.  But  at  the  time,  when  the  true  state  of  affairs 
was  little  known  in  England,  the  account  of  the  '  massacre  of 
Sinope '  was  received  as  if  it  had  been  the  tale  of  some 
unparalleled  act  of  treachery  and  savagery ;  and  the  eager- 
ness of  the  country  for  war  against  Eussia  became  mflamed 
to  actual  passion. 

It  was  at  that  moment  that  Palmerston  resigned  his  office. 
The  Cabinet  were  still  not  prepared  to  go  as  far  as  he  would 
have  gone.  Lord  Palmerston,  supported  by  the  urgent 
pressure  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  succeeded,  however, 
in  at  last  overcoming  their  determination ;  and  Lord  Palmer- 
ston resumed  his  place,  master  of  the  situation.  France  and 
England  told  Eussia  that  they  were  resolved  to  prevent  any 
repetition  of  the  Sinope  affair  ;  that  their  squadrons  would 
enter  the  Black  Sea  with  orders  to  request,  and  if  necessary 
to  constrain,  every  Eussian  ship  met  in  the  Euxine  to  return 
to  Sebastopol ;  and  to  repel  by  force  any  act  of  aggression 
afterwards  attempted  against  the  Ottoman  territory  or  flag. 
This  was,  in  fact,  war.  When  the  resolution  of  the  Western 
Cabinets  was  communicated  to  the  Emperor  of  Eussia  he  with- 
drew his  representatives  from  London  and  Paris.  On  February 
21,  1854,  the  diplomatic  relations  between  Eussia  and  the  two 
allied  powers  were  brought  to  a  stop.  Six  weeks  before  this 
the  English  and 'French  fleets  had  entered  the  Black  Sea.  A 
few  days  after  a  crowd  assembled  in  front  of  the  Eoyal  Exchange 
to  watch  the  performance  of  a  ceremonial  that  had  been  little 
known  to  the  living  generation.  The  Sergeant-at-Arms, 
accompanied  by  some  of  the  officials  of  the  City,  read  from 
the  steps  of  the  Eoyal  Exchange  her  Majesty's  declaration  of 
war  against  Eussia. 

The  principal  reason  for  the  separation  of  the  two  Western 
Powers  of  Europe  from  the  other  great  States  was  found  in 
the  condition  of  Prussia.  The  Prussian  sovereign  was  related 
to  the  Emperor  of  Eussia,  and  his  kingdom  was  almost  over- 
ehadowed  by  Eussian  influence.  Prussia  had  come  to  occupy 
a  lower  position  m  Europe  than  she  had  ever  before  held 
during  her  existence  as  a  kingdom.     The  King  of  Prussia  was 


144      ^   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xi. 

a  highly- cultured,  amiable,  literary  man.  He  loved  letters  and 
art  in  a  sort  of  dilettante  way  ;  he  had  good  impulses  and  a 
weak  nature  ;  he  was  a  dreamer  ;  a  sort  of  philosopher  man- 
que. He  was  unable  to  make  up  his  mind  to  any  momentous 
decision  until  the  time  for  rendering  it  effective  had  gone  by. 
A  man  naturally  truthful,  he  was  often  led  by  very  weakness 
into  acts  that  seemed  irreconcilable  with  his  previous  promises 
and  engagements.  He  could  say  witty  and  sarcastic  things, 
and  when  political  affairs  went  wrong  with  him,  he  could  con- 
sole himself  with  one  or  two  sharp  sayings  only  heard  of  by 
those  immediately  around  him  ;  and  then  the  world  might  go 
its  way  for  him.  He  went  so  far  with  the  allies  as  to  lead 
them  for  a  while  to  believe  that  he  was  going  all  the  way ; 
but  at  the  last  moment  he  broke  off,  declared  that  the  interests 
of  Prussia  did  not  require  or  allow  him  to  engage  in  a  war, 
and  left  France  and  England  to  walk  their  own  road.  Austria 
could  not  venture  upon  such  a  war  without  the  co-operation  of 
Prussia.  Austria  and  Prussia  made  an  arrangement  between 
themselves  for  mutual  defence  in  case  the  progress  of  the  war 
should  directly  imperil  the  interests  of  either  ;  and  England 
and  France  undertook  in  alliance  the  task  of  chastising  the 
presumption  and  restraining  the  ambitious  designs  of  Kussia. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  controversy  between  Eussia 
and  the  West  really  involved  several  distinct  questions,  in  seme 
of  which  Prussia  had  absolutely  no  direct  interest  and  Austria 
very  little.  Foremost  among  these  was  the  question  of  the 
Straits  of  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosphorus. 

Piussia  and  Turkey  between  them  surrounded  the  whole  of 
the  Black  Sea  with  their  territory.  The  only  outlet  of  Kussia 
on  the  southern  side  is  the  Black  Sea.  The  Black  Sea  is, 
save  for  one  little  outlet  at  its  south-western  extremity,  a  huge 
land-locked  lake.  That  little  outlet  is  the  narrow  channel 
called  the  Bosphorus.  The  Bosphorus  is  some  seventeen  miles 
in  length,  and  in  some  places  it  is  hardly  more  than  half  a 
mile  in  breadth.  But  it  is  very  deep  all  through,  so  that  ships 
of  war  can  float  close  up  to  its  very  shores  on  either  side.  It 
passes  between  the  city  of  Constantinople  and  its  Asiatic 
suburb  of  Scutari,  and  then  opens  into  the  little  Sea  of  Marmora. 
Out  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora  the  way  westward  is  through  the 
channel  of  the  Dardanelles,  which  forms  the  passage  into 
the  Archipelago,  and  thence  into  the  Mediterranean.  The 
channel  of  the  Dardanelles  is,  like  the  Bosphorus,  narrow 
and  very  deep,  but  it  pursues  its  course  for  some  forty  miles. 


CH.  XI,  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  145 

Anyone  who  holds  a  map  in  his  hand  will  see  at  once  how 
Turkey  and  Kussia  alike  are  affected  by  the  existence  of  the 
Straits  on  either  extremity  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  Close  up 
these  Straits  against  vessels  of  war,  and  the  capital  of  the 
Sultan  is  absolutely  unassailable  from  the  sea.  Close  them, 
on  the  other  hand,  and  the  Russian  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea  is 
absolutely  cut  off  from  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Western  world. 
But  then  it  has  to  be  remembered  that  the  same  act  of  closing 
w^ould  secure  the  Eussian  ports  and  shores  on  the  Black  Sea 
from  the  approach  of  any  of  the  great  navies  of  the  West.  The 
Dardanelles  and  the  Bosphorus  being  alike  such  narrow 
channels,  and  being  edged  alike  by  Turkish  territory,  were  not 
regarded  as  high  seas.  The  Sultans  always  claimed  the  right 
to  exclude  foreign  ships  of  war  from  both  the  Straits.  The 
closing  of  the  Straits  had  been  the  subject  of  a  perfect  succes- 
sion of  treaties. 

As  matters  stood  then,  the  Sultan  was  not  only  permitted 
but  was  bound  to  close  the  Straits  in  times  of  peace,  and  no 
navy  might  enter  them  without  his  consent  even  in  times  of 
war.  By  this  treaty  the  Black  Sea  fleet  of  Eussia  became 
literally  a  Black  Sea  fleet,  wholly  cut  off  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  Western  Europe.  Naturally  Eussia  chafed  at  this ; 
but  at  the  same  time  she  was  not  willing  to  see  the  restriction 
withdrawn  in  favour  of  an  arrangement  that  would  leave  the 
Straits,  and  consequently  the  Black  Sea,  open  to  the  navies  of 
France  and  England.  Therefore  it  was  natural  that  the 
ambition  of  Eussia  should  tend  towards  the  ultimate  possession 
of  Constantinople  and  the  Straits  for  herself ;  but  as  this  was  an 
ambition  the  fulfilment  of  which  seemed  far  off'  and  beset  with 
vast  dangers,  her  object,  meanwhile,  was  to  gain  as  much  influ- 
ence and  ascendency  as  possible  over  the  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment ;  to  make  it  practically  her  vassal,  and  in  any  case  to 
prevent  any  other  great  Power  from  obtaining  the  influence 
and  ascendency  which  she  coveted  for  herself.  Now  the 
tendency  of  this  ambition  and  of  ail  the  intermediate  claims 
and  disputes  with  regard  to  the  opening  or  closing  of  the  Straits 
was  of  importance  to  Europe  generally  as  a  part  of  Eussian 
aggrandisement ;  but  of  the  great  Powers  they  concerned 
England  most ;  France  as  a  Mediterranean  and  a  naval  power ; 
Austria  only  in  a  third  and  remoter  degree ;  and  Pmssia  at 
the  time  of  King  Frederick  William  least  of  all. 

To  the  great  majority  of  the  English  people  this  war  was 
popular,  partly  because  of  the  natural  and  inevitable  reaction 


146       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       cii.  XI. 

against  the  doctrines  of  peace  and  mere  trading  prosperity, 
pa;rtly  too  because  of  its  novelty.  The  doctrines  of  the  Peace 
Society  had  never  taken  any  hold  of  this  country  at  all.  Its 
votaries  were  in  any  case  not  many  at  the  time  when  the 
Crimean  War  broke  out.  They  had  very  little  influence  on 
the  course  of  the  national  policy.  They  were  assailed  with  a 
flippant  and  a  somewhat  ignoble  ridicule.  The  worst  reproach 
that  could  be  given  to  men  like  Mr.  Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright 
was  to  accuse  them  of  being  members  of  the  Peace  Society. 
It  does  not  appear  that  either  man  was  a  member  of  the  actual 
organisation.  Mr.  Bright's  religious  creed  made  him  neces- 
sarily a  votary  of  peace  ;  Mr.  Cobden  had  attended  meetings 
called  with  the  futile  purpose  of  establishing  peace  among 
nations  by  the  operation  of  good  feeling  and  of  common  sense. 

In  the  Cabinet  itself  there  were  men  who  disliked  the  idea 
of  a  war  quite  as  much  as  they  did.  Lord  Aberdeen  detested 
war,  and  thought  it  so  absurd  a  way  of  settling  national  dis- 
putes, that  almost  until  the  first  cannon-shot  had  been  fired 
he  could  not  bring  himself  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of  the 
intelligent  English  people  being  drawn  into  it.  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  a  conscientious  and  a  sensitive  objection  to  war  in  general 
as  a  brutal  and  an  unchristian  occupation,  although  his  feel- 
ings would  not  have  carried  him  so  far  away  as  to  prevent  his 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  war  might  often  be  a  just,  a  neces- 
sary, and  a  glorious  undertaking  on  the  part  of  a  civilised  nation. 
The  difficulties  of  the  hour  were  considerably  enhanced  by  the 
differences  of  opinion  that  prevailed  in  the  Cabinet. 

There  were  other  differences  there  as  well  as  those  that 
belonged  to  the  mere  abstract  question  of  the  glory  or  the 
guilt  of  war.  It  soon  became  clear  that  two  parties  of  the 
Cabinet  looked  on  the  war  and  its  objects  with  different  eyes 
and  interests.  On  one  side  there  were  Lord  Aberdeen  and 
Mr.  Gladstone,  who  were  concerned  far  more  for  the  welfare 
of  Turkey's  Christian  subjects  than  for  the  stability  of  Turkey 
or  the  humiliation  of  Eussia.  On  the  other  side  was  Lord 
Palmerston,  gay,  resolute,  clear  as  to  his  own  purpose,  con- 
vinced to  the  heart's  core  of  everything  which  just  then  it 
was  for  the  advantage  of  his  cause  to  believe.  The  brave 
Turk  had  to  be  supported  ;  the  wicked  Eussian  had  to  be  put 
down.  It  was  impossible  to  doubt  on  which  side  were  to  be 
found  the  materials  for  the  successful  conduct  of  the  enter- 
prise which  was  now  so  popular  with  the  country.  The  most 
conscientious  men  might  differ  about  the  prudence  or  the 


CH.  XI.  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR,  147 

moral  propriety  of  the  war ;  but  to  those  who  once  accepted 
its  necessity  and  wished  our  side  to  win,  there  could  be  no 
possible  doubt,  even  for  members  of  the  Peace  Society,  as  to 
the  importance  of  having  Lord  Palmerston  either  at  the  head 
ol  affairs  or  in  charge  of  the  war  itself.  The  moment  the  war 
actually  broke  out  it  became  evident  to  everyone  that  Palmer- 
ston's  interval  of  comparative  inaction  and  obscurity  was  well- 
nigh  over. 

England  then  and  France  entered  the  war  as  allies.  Lord 
Eaglan,  formerly  Lord  Fitzroy  Somerset,  an  old  pupil  of  the 
Great  Duke  in  the  Peninsular  War,  and  who  had  lost  his 
right  arm  servingunder  Wellington  at  Waterloo,  was  appointed 
to  command  the  English  forces.  Marshal  St.  Arnaud,  a  bold, 
brilliant  soldier  of  fortune,  was  entrusted  by  the  Emperor  of 
the  French  with  the  leader^iip  of  the  soldiers  01  France. 
The  allied  forces  went  out  to  the  East  and  assembled  at 
Varna,  on  the  Black  Sea  shore,  from  which  they  were  to 
make  their  descent  on  the  Crimea.  The  invasion  of  the 
Crimea,  however,  was  not  welcomed  by  the  English  or  the 
French  commander.  It  was  undertaken  by  Lord  Raglan 
out  of  deference  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Government ; 
and  by  Marshal  St.  Arnaud  out  of  deference  to  the  Em- 
peror of  the  French.  The  allied  forces  were  therefore  con- 
veyed to  the  south-western  shore  of  the  Crimea,  and  effected 
a  landing  in  Kalamita  Bay,  a  short  distance  north  01  the  point 
at  which  the  river  Alma  runs  into  the  sea.  Sebastopol  itself 
lies  about  thirty  miles  to  the  south  ;  and  then  more  southward 
still,  divided  by  the  bulk  of  a  jutting  promontory  from  Sebas- 
topol, is  the  harbour  of  Balaklava.  The  disembarkation  began 
on  the  morning  of  September  14,  1854,  and  was  effected  with- 
out any  opposition  from  the  Russians.  On  September  19  the 
allies  marched  out  of  their  encampments  and  reached  the 
Alma  about  noon  on  September  20.  They  found  that  they 
had  to  cross  the  river  in  the  face  of  the  Russian  batteries 
armed  with  heavy  guns  on  the  highest  points  of  the  hills  or 
bluffs,  of  scattered  artillery,  and  of  dense  masses  of  infantry 
which  covered  the  hills.  The  Russians  were  under  the  com- 
mand of  Prince  Mentschikoff.  The  soldiers  of  the  Czar  fought 
stoutly  and  stubbornly  as  they  have  always  done ;  but  they 
could  not  stand  up  against  the  blended  vehemence  and  obsti- 
nacy of  the  English  and  French.  The  river  was  crossed,  the 
opposite  heights  were  mounted.  Prince  Mentschikoff's  great 
redoubt  was  carried,  the  Russians  were  driven  from  the  field, 


148       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       Cil.  xi. 

the  allies  occupied  their  ground;  the  victory  was  to  the 
Western  Powers.  The  first  field  was  fought,  and  we  had 
won. 

The  Eussians  ought  to  have  been  pursued.  But  there 
was  no  pursuit.  Lord  Eaglan  was  eager  to  follow  up  the 
victory ;  but  the  French  had  as  yet  hardly  any  cavalry,  and 
Marshal  St.  Arnaud  would  not  agree  to  any  further  enterprise 
that  day.  Lord  liaglan  believed  that  he  ought  not  to  persist ; 
and  nothing  was  done.  Except  for  the  bravery  of  those 
who  fought,  the  battle  was  not  much  to  boast  of.  But  it 
was  the  first  great  battle  which  for  nearly  forty  years  our 
soldiers  had  fought  with  a  civilised  enemy.  The  military 
authorities  and  the  country  were  w^ell  disposed  to  make  the 
most  of  it.  The  gallant  medley  on  the  banks  of  the  Alma 
and  the  fruitless  interval  of  inaction  tha,t  followed  it  were  told 
of  as  if  men  were  speaking  of  some  battle  of  the  gods.  Very 
soon,  however,  a  different  note  came  to  be  sounded.  The 
campaign  had  been  opened  under  conditions  differing  from 
those  of  most  campaigns  that  went  before  it.  Science 
had  added  many  new  discoveries  to  the  art  of  war.  Literature 
had  added  one  remarkable  contribution  of  her  own  to  the  con- 
ditions amid  which  campaigns  were  to  be  carried  on.  She 
had  added  the  '  special  correspondent.'  The  war  correspondent 
now  scrawls  his  despatches  as  he  sits  in  his  saddle  under  the 
fire  of  the  enemy ;  he  scrawls  them  with  a  pencil,  noting  and 
describing  each  incident  of  the  fight,  so  far  as  he  can  see  it, 
as  coolly  as  if  he  were  describing  a  review  of  volunteers  in 
Hyde  Park  ;  and  he  contrives  to  send  off  his  narrative  by 
telegraph  before  the  victor  in  the  fight  has  begun  to  pursue, 
or  has  settled  down  to  hold  the  ground  he  won  ;  and  the  war 
correspondent's  story  is  expected  to  be  as  brilliant  and  pic- 
turesque in  style  as  it  ought  to  be  exact  and  faithful  in  its 
statem.ents.  In  the  days  of  the  Crimea  things  had  not  advanced 
quite  so  far  as  that ;  the  war  was  well  on  before  the  submarine 
telegraph  between  Varna  and  the  Crimea  allowed  of  daily  re- 
ports ;  but  the  feats  of  the  war  correspondent  then  filled  men's 
minds  with  wonder.  When  the  expedition  was  leaving  England 
it  was  accompanied  by  a  special  correspondent  from  each  of 
the  great  daily  papers  of  London.  The  Times  sent  out  a  re- 
presentative whose  name  almost  immediately  became  celebrated 
— Mr.  William  Howard  Russell,  the  first  of  war  correspondents 
in  that  day  as  Mr.  Archiba^ld  Forbes  ol:  the  Daily  News  was 
at  a  later  period.     Mr.  Russell  rendered  some  service  to  the 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  149 

English  army  and  to  his  country,  however,  which  no  brilhancy 
of  Hterary  style  would  alone  have  enabled  him  to  do.  It  was 
to  his  great  credit  as  a  man  of  judgment  and  observation  that, 
being  a  civilian  who  had  never  before  seen  one  xouff  of  war-smoke, 
he  was  able  to  distinguish  between  the  confusion  inseparable 
from  all  actual  levying  of  w^ar  and  the  contusion  that  comes 
of  distinctly  bad  administration.  Mr.  Russell  soon  saw  that 
there  was  confusion  ;  and  he  had  the  somidness  of  judgment 
to  know  that  the  confusion  was  that  of  a  breaking-down 
system.  Therefore,  while  the  fervour  of  delight  in  the 
courage  and  success  of  our  army  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds 
of  the  public  at  home,  while  every  music-hall  was  rmging 
with  the  cheap  rewards  of  valour  in  the  shape  of  popular 
glorifications  of  our  commanders  and  our  soldiers,  the  readers 
of  the  Times  began  to  learn  that  things  w^ere  faring  badly 
indeed  with  the  conquering  army  of  the  Alma.  The  ranks 
were  thinned  by  the  ravages  of  cholera.  The  hospitals  were 
in  a  wretchedly  disorganised  condition.  Stores  of  medicmes 
and  strengthening  food  were  decaying  in  places  where  no  one 
wanted  them  or  could  well  get  at  them,  while  men  were  dying 
in  hundreds  among  our  tents  in  the  Crimea  for  lack  of  them. 
The  system  of  clothing,  of  transport,  of  feeding,  of  nursing — 
everything  had  broken  down.  The  special  correspondent  of 
the  Times  and  other  correspondents  continued  to  din  these 
thmgs  into  the  ears  of  the  public  at  home.  Exultation  began 
to  give  way  to  a  feeling  of  dismay.  The  patriotic  anger  against 
the  Piussians  was  changed  for  a  mood  of  deep  indignation 
against  our  own  authorities  and  our  own  war  admmistration. 
It  soon  became  apparent  to  everyone  that  the  whole  campaign 
had  been  planned  on  the  assumption  of  our  military  authorities 
here  at  home — we  do  not  speak  of  the  commanders  in  the 
field — that  Sebastopol  was  to  fall  like  another  Jericho,  at  the 
sound  of  the  war-trumpets'  blast. 

Our  commanders  in  the  field  were,  on  the  contrary,  rather 
disposed  to  overrate  than  to  underrate  the  strength  of  the 
Eussians.  It  is  very  likely  that  if  a  sudden  dash  had  been 
made  at  Sebastopol  by  land  and  sea,  it  might  have  been  taken 
almost  at  the  very  opening  of  the  war.  But  the  delay  gave 
the  Russians  full  warning ;  and  they  did  not  neglect  it.  On 
the  third  day  after  the  battle  of  the  Alma  the  Russians  sank 
seven  vessels  of  their  Black  Sea  fleet  at  the  entrance  of  the 
harbour  of  Sebastopol,  and  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  was 
barred  as  by   sunken  rocks   against    any   approach    of    an 


I50       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  XL 

enemy's  ship.  There  was  an  end  to  every  dream  of  a  sudden 
capture  of  Sebastopol.  The  allied  armies  moved  again 
from  their  positions  on  the  Alma  to  Balaklava,  which  lies 
south  of  the  city,  on  the  other  side  of  a  promontory,  and 
which  has  a  port  that  might  enable  them  to  secure  a  con- 
stant means  of  communication  between  the  armies  and 
the  fleets.  Sebastopol  was  but  a  few  miles  off,  and  pre- 
parations were  at  once  made  for  an  attack  on  it  by  land 
and  sea.  On  October  17  the  attack  began.  It  was  prac- 
tically a  failure.  The  fleet  could  not  get  near  enough  to 
the  sea-forts  of  Sebastopol  to  make  their  broadsides  of  any 
real  effect,  because  of  the  shallow  water  and  the  sunken  ships  ; 
and  although  the  attack  from  the  land  was  vigorous  and  was 
fiercely  kept  up,  yet  it  could  not  carry  its  object. 

The  Kussians  attacked  the  allies  fiercely  on  October  25,  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  possession  of  Balaklava.  The  attempt 
was  bold  and  brilliant ;  but  it  was  splendidly  repulsed.  Never 
did  a  day  of  battle  do  more  credit  to  English  courage,  or  less 
perhaps  to  English  generalship.  The  cavalry  particularly 
distinguished  themselves.  It  was  in  great  measure  on  our  side 
a  cavalry  action.  It  will  be  memorable  in  all  English  history 
as  the  battle  in  which  occurred  the  famous  charge  of  the 
Light  Brigade.  Owing  to  some  fatal  misconception  of  the 
meaning  of  an  order  from  the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  Light 
Brigade,  G07  men  in  all,  charged  what  has  been  rightly 
described  as  '  the  Kussian  army  in  position.'  Of  the  607  men 
198  came  back.  Long,  painful,  and  hopeless  were  the  dis- 
putes about  this  fatal  order.  The  controversy  can  never  be 
wholly  settled.  The  officer  who  bore  the  order  was  one  of  the 
first  who  fell  in  the  outset.  All  Europe,  all  the  world,  rang 
with  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  futile  and  splendid  charge. 
The  Poet  Laureate  sang  of  it  in  spirited  verses.  Perhaps  its 
best  epitaph  was  contained  in  the  celebrated  comment  ascribed 
to  the  French  General  liosquet,  and  which  has  since  become 
proverbial,  and  been  quoted  until  men  are  well-nigh  tired  of 
it — '  It  was  magnificent,  but  it  was  not  war.' 

Next  day,  the  enemy  made  another  vigorous  attack  on 
a  much  larger  scale,  moving  out  of  Sebastopol  itself,  and 
were  again  repulsed.  On  November  5  the  Russians  made 
another  grand  attack  on  the  allies,  chiefly  on  the  British,  and 
were  once  more  splendidly  repulsed.  The  plateau  of  Inker- 
man  was  the  principal  scene  of  the  struggle.  It  was  occupied 
by  the  Guards  and  a  few  British  regiments,  on  whom  fell, 


cii.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN    WAR,  151 

until  General  Bosquet  with  his  French  was  able  to  come  to 
their  assistance,  the  task  of  resisting  a  Eussian  army.  This 
was  the  severest  and  the  fiercest  engagement  of  the  campaign. 
Inkerman  was  described  at  the  time  as  the  soldiers'  battle. 
Strategy,  it  was  said  everywhere,  there  was  none.  The  attack- 
was  made  mider  cover  of  a  dark  and  drizzling  mist.  The 
battle  was  fought  for  a  while  almost  absolutely  in  the  dark. 
There  was  hardly  any  attempt  to  direct  the  allies  by  any 
principles  of  scientific  warfare.  The  soldiers  fought  stub- 
bornly a  series  of  hand-to-hand  fights,  and  we  are  entitled  to 
say  that  the  better  men  won  in  the  end. 

Meanwhile  what  were  people  saymg  in  England  ?  They  were 
indignantly  declaring  that  the  whole  campaign  was  a  muddle. 
The  temper  of  a  people  thus  stimulated  and  thus  disappointed 
is  almost  always  indiscriminating  and  unreasonable  in  its 
censure.  The  first  idea  is  to  find  a  victim.  The  victim  on 
whom  the  anger  of  a  large  portion  of  the  public  turned  in  this 
instance  was  the  Prince  Consort.  The  most  absurd  ideas,  the 
most  pruel  and  baseless  calumnies,  were  in  circulation  about 
him.  *  He  was  accused  of  having  out  of  some  inscrutable  motive 
made  use  of  all  his  secret  influence  to  prevent  the  success  of  the 
campaign.  He  was  charged  with  being  in  a  conspiracy  with 
Prussia,  with  Eussia,  with  no  one  knew  exactly  whom,  to  weaken 
the  strength  of  England,  and  secure  a  triumph  for  her  enemies. 
Stories  were  actually  told  at  one  time  of  his  having  been  arrested 
for  high  treason.  The  charges  which  sprang  of  this  heated  and 
unjust  temper  on  the  part  of  the  public  did  not  indeed  long  pre- 
vail against  the  Prince  Consort.  When  once  the  subject  came 
to  be  taken  up  in  Parliament  it  was  shown  almost  in  a  moment 
that  there  was  not  the  slightest  ground  or  excuse  for  any  of  the 
absurd  surmises  and  cruel  suspicions  which  had  been  creating  so 
much  agitation.  The  agitation  collapsed  in  a  moment.  But 
while  it  lasted  it  was  both  vehement  and  intense,  and  gave  much 
pain  to  the  Prince,  and  far  more  pain  still  to  the  Queen  his  wife. 

The  winter  was  gloomy  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  The 
news  constantly  arriving  from  the  Crimea  told  only  of  devasta- 
tioncaused  byfoes  far  more  formidable  than  the  Eussians — sick- 
ness, bad  weather,  bad  management.  The  Black  Sea  was  swept 
and  scourged  by  terrible  storms.  The  destruction  ol  transport- 
ships  laden  with  winter  stores  for  our  men  was  oi  incalculable 
injury  to  the  army.  Clothing,  blanketing,  provisions,  hospital 
necessaries  of  all  kinds,  were  destroyed  in  vast  quantities. 
The  loss  of  life  among  the  crews  of  the  vessels  was  immense. 


152       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OP  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       cii.  xi. 

A  storm  was  nearly  as  disastrous  in  tins  way  as  a  battle.     On 
shore  the  sufferings  of  the  army  were  unspeakable.     The  tents 
were  torn  from  their  pegs  and  blown  away.     Th6  officers  and 
men  were  exposed  to  the  bitter  cold  and  the  fierce  stormy  blasts. 
Our  soldiers  had  for  the  most  part  little  experience  or  even  idea 
of  such  cold  as  they  had  to  encounter  this  gloomy  winter.     The 
intensity  of  the  cold  was  so  great  that  no  one  might  dare  to 
touch  any  metal  substance  in  the  open  air  with  his  bare  hand 
under  the  penalty  of  leaving  the  skin  behind  him.     The  hos- 
pitals for  the  sick  and  wounded  at  Scutari  were  in  a  wretchedly 
disorganised  condition.     They  were  for  the  most  part  in  an 
absolutely  chaotic  condition  as  regards  arrangement  and  supply. 
In  some  instances  medical  stores  were  left  to  decay  at  Varna, 
or  were  found  lying  useless  in  the  holds  of  vessels  in  Balaklava 
bay,  which  w^ere  needed  for  the  wounded  at  Scutari.      The 
medical  officers  were  able  and  zealous  men  ;  the  stores  were 
provided  and  paid  for  so  far  as  our  Government  was  concerned ; 
but  the  stores  were  not  brought  to  the  medical  men.     These 
had  their  hands  all  but  idle,  their  eyes  and  souls  tortured  by 
the  sight  of  sufferings  which  they  were  unable  to  relieve  for 
want  of  the  commonest  appliances  of  the  hospital.     The  most 
extraordinary  instances  of  blunder  and  confusion  were  con- 
stantly coming  to  light.     Great  consignments  of  boots  arrived, 
and  were  found  to  be  all  for  the  left  foot.     Mules  for  the 
conveyance  of  stores  were  contracted  for  and  delivered,  but 
delivered  so  that  they  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Eussians 
and  not  of  us.      Shameful  frauds  were  perpetrated  in  the 
instance  of  some  of  the  contracts  for  preserved  meat.     The 
evils   of  the  hospital  disorganisation  were  happily  made   a 
means  of  bringing  about  a  new  system  of  attending  to  the 
sick  and  wounded  in  war  which  has  already  created  some- 
thing like  a  revolution  in  the  manner  of  treating  the  victims 
of  battle.     Mr.  Sidney  Herbert,  horrified  at  the  way  in  which 
things  were  managed  in  Scutari  and  the  Crimea,  applied  lo 
a  distinguished  woman  who  had  long  taken  a  deep  interest  in 
hospital  reform  to  superintend  personally  the  nursing  of  the 
soldiers.     Miss  Florence  Nightingale  was  the  daughter  of  a 
■wealthy  English   country  gentleman.     She  had  chosen  not 
to  pass  her  life  in  fashionable  or  aesthetic  inactivity  ;  and  had 
from   a  very  early  period   turned  her   attention  to    sanitary 
questions.     She  had  studied  nursing  as  a  science  and  a  system  ; 
had  made  herself  acquainted  with  the  working  of  various  con- 
tinental institutions  ;  and  about  the  time  when  the  war  broke 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN  WAR.  153 

out  she  was  actually  engaged  in  reorganising  the  Sick  Gover- 
nesses' Institution  in  Harley  Street,  London.  To  her  Mr. 
Sidney  Herbert  turned.  He  oflered  her,  if  she  would  accept 
the  task  he  proposed,  plenary  authority  over  all  the  nurses,  and 
an  unlimited  power  of  drawing  on  the  Government  for  what- 
ever she  might  think  necessary  to  the  success  of  her  under- 
taking. Miss  Nightingale  accepted  the  task,  and  went  out  to 
Scutari  accompanied  by  some  women  of  rank  like  her  own,  and 
a  trained  staff  of  nurses.  They  speedily  reduced  chaos  into 
order  ;  and  from  the  time  of  their  landing  in  Scutari  there  was 
at  least  one  department  of  the  business  of  war  which  was  never 
again  a  subject  of  complaint.  The  spirit  of  the  chivalric  days 
had  been  restored  under  better  auspices  for  its  abiding  in- 
fluence. Sidney  Herbert,  in  his  letter  to  Miss  Nightingale, 
had  said  that  her  example,  if  she  accepted  the  task  he  proposed, 
would  'multiply  the  good  to  all  time.'  These  words  proved 
to  have  no  exaggeration  in  them.  We  have  never  seen  a  war 
since  in  which  women  of  education  and  of  genuine  devotion 
have  not  given  themselves  up  to  the  task  of  caring  for  the 
wounded.  The  Geneva  Convention  and  the  bearing  of  the  Red 
Cross  are  among  the  results  of  Florence  Nightingale's  work  in 
the  Crimea. 

But  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  was  meanwhile  dragging 
heavily  along ;  and  sometimes  it  was  not  quite  certain  which 
ought  to  be  called  the  besieged,  the  Russians  in  the  city  or 
the  allies  encamped  in  sight  of  it.  During  some  months  the 
armies  did  little  or  nothing.  The  commissariat  system  and 
the  land  transport  system  had  broken  down.  The  armies 
were  miserably  weakened  by  siclmess.  Cholera  was  ever  and 
anon  raging  anew  among  our  men.  Horses  and  mules  were 
dying  of  cold  and  starvation.  The  roads  were  only  deep 
irregular  ruts  filled  with  mud  ;  the  camp  was  a  marsh  ;  the 
tents  stood  often  in  pools  of  water  ;  the  men  had  sometimes 
no  beds  but  straw  dripping  with  wet ;  and  hardly  any  bed 
coverings.  Our  unfortunate  Turkish  allies  were  in  a  far  more 
wretched  plight  than  even  we  ourselves.  The  authorities  who 
ought  to  have  looked  after  them  were  impervious  to  the 
criticisms  of  special  correspondents  and  unassailable  by 
Parliamentary  votes  of  censure,  h  condemnation  of  the 
latter  kind  was  hanging  over  oui  Government.  Parliament 
was  called  together  before  Christmas ;  and  after  the  Christmas 
recess  Mr.  Roebuck  gave  notice  that  he  would  move  for  a 
select  committee  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  armj 


154       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       CH.  xi. 

before  Sebastopol,  and  into  the  conduct  of  those  departments 
of  the  Government  whose  duty  it  had  been  to  minister  to  the 
wants  of  the  army.  Lord  John  Kussell  did  not  beheve  for 
himself  that  the  motion  could  be  conscientiously  resisted ;  but 
as  it  necessarily  involved  a  censure  upon  some  of  his  colleagues, 
he  did  not  think  he  ought  to  remain  longer  in  the  Ministry, 
and  he  therefore  resigned  his  office.  The  sudden  resignation 
of  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  a  death-blow  to 
any  plans  of  resistance  by  which  the  Government  might  other- 
wise have  thought  of  encountering  Mr.  Eoebuck's  motion. 
Mr.  Eoebuck's  motion  came  on,  and  was  resisted  with  vigour 
by  Lord  Palmerston  and  Mr.  Gladstone.  The  House  of 
Commons  was  not  to  be  moved  by  any  such  argument  or 
appeal.  The  one  pervading  idea  was  that  England  had  been 
endangered  and  shamed  by  the  break- down  of  her  army 
organisation.  When  the  division  took  place  305  members 
voted  for  Mr.  Roebuck's  motion  and  only  148  against.  The 
majority  against  Ministers  was  therefore  157.  Everyone 
knows  what  a  scene  usually  takes  place  when  a  Ministry  is 
defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Cheering  again  and 
again  renewed,  counter- cheers  of  defiance,  wild  exultation, 
vehement  indignation,  a  whole  whirlpool  of  various  emotions, 
seething  in  that  little  hall  in  St.  Stephen's.  But  this  time 
there  was  no  such  outburst.  The  House  could  hardly  realise 
the  fact  that  the  Ministry  of  all  the  talents  had  been  thus 
completely  and  ignominiously  defeated.  A  dead  silence 
followed  the  announcement  of  the  numbers.  Then  there  was 
a  half-breathless  murmur  of  amazement  and  incredulity. 
The  Speaker  repeated  the  numbers,  and  doubt  was  over.  It 
was  still  uncertain  how  the  House  would  express  its  feelings. 
Suddenly  someone  laughed.  The  sound  gave  a  direction  and 
a  relief  to  perplexed,  pent-up  emotion.  Shouts  of  laughter 
followed.  Not  merely  the  pledged  opponents  of  the  Govern- 
ment laughed.  Many  of  those  who  had  voted  with  Ministers 
found  themselves  laughing  too.  It  seemed  so  absurd,  so  in- 
congruous, this  way  of  disposing  of  the  great  Coalition 
Government.  Many  must  have  thought  of  the  night  of  fierce 
debate,  little  more  than  two  years  before,  when  Mr.  Disraeli, 
then  on  the  verge  of  his  fall  from  power  and  realising  fully 
the  strength  of  the  combination  against  him,  consoled  hig 
party  and  himself  for  the  imminent  fatality  awaiting  them  by 
the  defiant  words,  '  I  know  that  I  have  to  face  a  Coalition  ; 
the  combination  may  be  successful.    A  combination  has  before 


CH.  XI.  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR.  155 

this  been  successful ;  but  coalitions,  though  they  may  be 
successful,  have  always  found  that  their  triumphs  have  been 
brief.  This  I  know,  that  England  does  not  love  coalitions.' 
Only  two  years  had  passed  and  the  great  Coalition  had  fallen, 
overwhelmed  with  reproach  and  popular  indignation,  and  amid 
sudden  shouts  of  laughter. 

Lord  Derby  was  invited  by  the  Queen  to  form  a  Government. 
He  tried  and  failed.  Palmerston  did  not  see  his  way  to  join 
a  Derby  Administration,  and  without  him  Lord  Derby  could 
not  go  on.  The  Queen  then  sent  for  Lord  John  Russell  ;  but 
Russell  found  that  he  could  not  get  a  Government  togedier. 
Tiord  Palmerston  was  then,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  the  in- 
evitable. There  was  not  much  change  in  the  Ministry.  Lord 
Aberdeen  was  gone,  and  Lord  Palmerston  took  his  place  ;  and 
Lord  Panmure,  who  had  formerly  as  Fox  Maule  administered 
the  affairs  of  the  army,  succeeded  the  Duke  of  Newcastle. 
Lord  Panmure,  however,  combined  in  his  own  person  the 
functions,  up  to  that  time  absurdly  separated,  of  Secretary- 
at-War  and  Secretary-for-War.  It  was  hoped  that  by  this 
change  great  benefit  would  come  to  our  whole  army  system. 
Lord  Palmerston  acted  energetically  too  in  sending  out  a 
sanitary  conmiission  to  the  Crimea,  and  a  commission  to 
superintend  the  commissariat,  a  department  that,  almost 
more  than  any  other,  had  broken  down.  Lord  Palmerston 
was  strongly  pressed  by  some  of  the  more  strenuous  Reformers 
of  the  House.  Mr.  Layard,  who  had  acquired  some  celebrity 
before  in  a  very  different  field,  as  a  discoverer,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  was  energetic  and  in- 
cessant in  his  attacks  on  the  administration  of  the  war,  and 
was  not  disposed  even  now  to  give  the  new  Government  a 
moment's  rest.  Mr.  Layard  was  a  man  of  a  certain  rough 
ability,  immense  self-sufficiency,  and  indomitable  egotism. 
He  was  not  in  any  sense  an  eloquent  speaker ;  he  was 
singularly  wanting  in  all  the  graces  of  style  and  manner. 
But  he  was  fluent,  he  was  vociferous,  he  never  seemed  to  have 
a  moment's  doubt  on  any  conceivable  question,  he  never 
admitted  that  there  could  by  any  possibility  be  two  sides  to 
any  matter  ol  discussion.  He  did  really  know  a  great  deal 
about  the  East  at  a  time  when  the  habit  of  travelling  in  the 
East  was  comparatively  rare.  He  stamped  down  all  doubt 
or  diiference  of  view  with  the  overbearing  dogmatism  of  the 
proverbial  man  who  has  been  there  and  oughc  to  know ;  and 
hfi  was  in  many  respects  admirably  fitted  to  be  the  spokesman 


156       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,       ch.  xi. 

of  all  those,  and  they  were  not  a  few,  who  saw  that  things 
had  been  going  wrong  without  exactly  seeing  why,  and  were 
eager  that  something  should  be  done,  although  they  did  not 
clearly  know  what.  Lord  Palmerston  strove  to  induce  the 
House  not  to  XDress  for  the  appointment  of  the  committee 
recommended  in  Mr.  Eoebuck's  motion.  The  Government,  he 
said,  would  make  the  needful  inquiries  themselves.  Mr. 
Roebuck,  however,  would  not  give  v/ay,  and  Lord  Palmerston 
yielded  to  a  demand  which  had  undoubtedly  the  support  of  a 
vast  force  of  public  opinion,  but  his  unavoidable  concession 
brought  on  a  new  ministerial  crisis.  Sir  James  Graham, 
Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  declined  to  hold  office 
any  longer.  They  had  opposed  the  motion  for  an  inquiry 
most  gravely  and  strenuously,  and  they  would  not  lend  any 
countenance  to  it  by  remaining  in  office.  Sir  Charles  Wood 
succeeded  Sir  James  Graham  as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty ; 
Lord  John  Russell  took  the  place  of  Secretary  of  the  Colonies, 
vacated  by  Sidney  Herbert ;  and  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis 
followed  Mr.  Gladstone  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

Meanwhile  new  negotiations  for  peace,  set  on  foot  under 
the  influence  of  Austria,  had  been  begun  at  Vienna,  and 
Lord  John  Russell  had  been  sent  there  to  represent  the 
interests  of  England.  We  had  got  a  new  ally  in  the  little 
kingdom  of  Sardinia,  whose  government  was  then  under  the 
control  of  one  of  the  master-spirits  of  modern  politics, 
Count  Cavour.  Sardinia  went  into  war  in  order  that  she 
might  have  a  locu8  standi  in  the  councils  of  Europe  from  v/hich 
to  set  forth  her  grievances  against  Austria.  The  policy  was 
singularly  successful,  and  entirely  justified  the  expectations  of 
Cavour.  The  Crimean  War  laid  the  foundations  of  the  king- 
dom of  Italy.  But  there  was  another  event  of  a  very  different 
nature,  the  effect  of  which  seemed  at  first  likely  to  be  all  in 
favour  of  peace.  On  March  2,  1855,  the  Emperor  Nicholas 
of  Russia  died  of  pulmonary  "apoplexy,  after  an  attack  of 
influenza.  A  cartoon  appeared  in  Punch,  which  was  called 
*  General  Fevrier  turned  Traitor.'  The  Emperor  Nicholas  had 
boasted  that  Russia  had  two  generals  on  whom  she  could 
always  rely,  General  Janvier  and  General  Fevrier ;  and 
now  the  English  artist  represented  General  February,  a 
skeleton  in  Russian  uniform,  turning  traitor  and  laying 
liis  bony  ice-cold  hand  on  the  heart  of  the  Sovereign  and 
betraying  him  to  the  tomb.  But  indeed  it  was  not  General 
February  alone  who  doomed  Nicholas  to  death.     The  Czar 


CH.  XI,  THE  CRIMEAN   WAR.  157 

died  of  broken  hopes ;  of  the  recklessness  that  comes 
from  defeat  and  despair.  He  took  no  precauiions  against 
cold  and  exposm^e  ;  he  treated  with  a  magnanimous  dis- 
dain the  remonstrances  of  his  physicians  and  his  friends. 
The  news  of  the  sudden  death  of  the  Emperor  created  a 
profound  sensation  in  England.  At  first  there  was,  as  we 
have  said,  a  common  impression  that  Nicholas's  son  and 
successor,  Alexander  II.,  would  be  more  anxious  to  make 
peace  than  his  father  had  been.  But  this  hope  was  soon 
gone.  The  new  Czar  could  not  venture  to  show  himself  to 
his  people  in  a  less  patriotic  light  than  his  predecessor.  The 
prospects  of  the  allies  were  at  the  time  remarkably  gloomy. 
There  must  have  seemed  to  the  new  Kussian  Emperor  con- 
siderable ground  for  the  hope  that  disease,  and  cold,  and  bad 
management  would  do  more  harm  to  the  army  of  England 
at  least  than  any  Russian  general  could  do.  The  Conference 
at  Vienna  proved  a  failure.  Lord  John  Ptussell,  sent  to 
Vienna  as  our  representative,  was  charged  by  Mr.  Disraeli 
with  having  encouraged  the  Russian  pretensions.  Sir  E.  B. 
Lytton  gave  notice  of  a  direct  vote  of  censure  on  '  the 
Minister  charged  with  the  negotiations  at  Vienna.'  But 
Russell  anticipated  the  certain  effect  of  a  vote  in  the 
House  of  Commons  by  resigning  his  office.  The  vote  of 
censure  was  withdrawn.  Sir  William  Molesworth,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  school  who  were  since  called 
Philosophical  Radicals,  succeeded  him  as  Colonial  Secretary  ; 
and  the  Ministry  carried  one  or  two  triumphant  votes  against 
Mr.  Disraeli,  ]\Ir.  Roebuck,  and  other  opponents,  or  at  least 
unfriendly  critics.  Meanwhile  the  Emperor  of  the  French 
and  his  wife  had  paid  a  visit  to  London,  and  had  been 
received  with  considerable  enthusiasm.  The  Queen  seems  to 
have  been  very  favourably  impressed  by  the  Emperor.  The 
Prince  Consort  seems  to  have  been  less  impressed.  The 
Prince  Consort  appears  to  have  judged  the  Emperor  ahnost 
exactly  as  impartial  opinion  has  judged  him  everywhere  in 
Europe  smce  that  time. 

The  operations  in  the  Crimea  were  renewed  with  some 
vigour.  The  English  army  lost  much  by  the  death  of  its 
brave  and  manly  Commander-in-Chief,  Lord  Raglan.  He 
was  succeeded  by  General  Simpson,  whose  administration 
during  the  short  time  that  he  held  the  command  was  at  least 
well  qualified  to  keep  Lord  Raglan's  memory  green  and  to 
prevent  the  regret  for  his  death  from  losing  any  of  its  keen- 


IS8       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWM    TIMES.       ch.  xi. 

ness.  The  French  army  had  lost  its  first  commander  long 
before — the  versatile,  reckless,  brilliant  soldier  of  fortune,  St. 
Arnaad.  After  St.  Arnaud's  death  the  command  was  trans- 
ferred for  a  while  to  General  Canrobert,  who  resigned  it  in 
favour  of  General  Pelissier.  The  Sardinian  contingent  had 
arrived,  and  had  given  admirable  proof  of  its  courage  and 
discipline.  On  August  16,  1855,  the  Eussians,  under  General 
Liprandi,  made  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Sebastopol  by  an  attack  on  the  allied  forces.  The  Sardinian 
contingent  bore  themselves  with  stubborn  bravery  in  the  resist- 
ance, and  all  Northern  Italy  was  thrown  into  wild  delight  by 
the  news  that  the  flag  of  Piedmont  had  been  carried  to 
victory  over  the  troops  of  one  great  European  Power,  and 
Bide  by  side  with  those  of  two  others.  It  was  the  first  great 
illustration  of  Cavour's  habitual  policy  oi  blended  audacity 
and  cool,  far-seeing  judgment.  The  siege  had  been  pro- 
gressing for  some  time  with  considerable  activity.  The 
Malakoff  tower  and  the  Mamelon  battery  in  front  of  it 
became  the  scenes  and  the  objects  of  constant  struggle. 
The  Russians  made  desperate  night  sorties  again  and  again, 
and  were  always  repulsed.  On  June  7  the  English  assaulted 
the  quarries  in  front  of  the  Redan,  and  the  French  attacked 
the  Mamelon.  The  attack  on  both  sides  was  successful ;  but 
it  was  followed  on  the  18th  of  the  same  month  by  a  desperate 
and  wholly  unsuccessful  attack  on  the  Redan  and  Malakofi' 
batteries.  On  September  5  the  allies  made  an  attack  almost 
simultaneously  upon  the  Malakoff  and  the  Redan.  The  French 
soon  got  possession  of  the  Malakoff,  and  the  English  then  at 
once  advanced  upon  the  Redan  ;  but  the  French  were  near  the 
Malakoff ;  the  English  were  very  far  away  from  the  Redan.  The 
distance  our  soldiers  had  to  traverse  left  them  almost  help- 
lessly exposed  to  the  Russian  fire.  They  stormed  the  parapets 
of  the  Redan  despite  all  the  difficulties  of  their  attack ;  but 
they  were  not  able  to  hold  the  place.  The  attacking  party 
were  far  too  small  in  numbers  ;  reinforcements  did  not  come  in 
time  ;  the  English  held  their  own  for  an  hour  against  odds 
that  might  have  seemed  overwhelming ;  but  it  was  simply  im- 
possible for  them  to  establish  themselves  in  the  Redan,  and 
the  remnant  of  them  that  could  withdraw  had  to  retreat  to  the 
trenches.  It  was  only  the  old  story  of  the  war.  Superb 
courage  and  skill  of  the  officers  and  men ;  outrageously  bad 
generalship.  The  attack  might  have  been  renewed  that 
day,  but  the  English  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Simpson, 


CH.  XI.  THE  CRIMEAN   WAR.  159 

resolved  not  to  make  another  attempt  till  the  next  morning. 
Before  the  morrow  came  there  was  nothing  to  attack.  The 
Kussians  withdrew  during  the  night  fron  the  south  side  of 
Sebastopol.  A  bridge  of  boats  had  been  constructed  across 
the  bay  to  connect  the  north  and  the  south  sides  of  the  city, 
and  across  this  bridge  Prince  Gortschakoff  quietly  withdrew  his 
troops.  The  Russian  general  felt  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  him  to  hold  the  city  much  longer,  and  that  to  remain  there 
was  only  useless  waste  of  life.  But,  as  he  said  in  his  own  de- 
spatch, '  It  is  not  Sebastopol  which  we  have  left  to  them,  but 
the  burning  ruins  of  the  town,  which  we  ourselves  set  fire  to, 
having  maintained  the  honour  of  the  defence  in  such  a 
manner  that  our  great-grandchildren  may  recall  with  pride 
the  remembrance  of  it  and  send  it  on  to  all  posterity.'  It 
was  some  time  before  the  allies  could  venture  to  enter  the 
abandoned  city.  The  arsenals  and  powder-magazines  weia 
exploding,  the  flames  were  bursting  out  of  every  public  build- 
ing and  every  private  house.  The  Russians  had  made  of 
Sebastopol  another  Moscow. 

With  the  close  of  that  long  siege,  which  had  lasted  nearly 
a  year,  the  war  may  be  said  to  have  ended.  The  brilliant 
episode  of  Kars,  its  splendid  defence  and  its  final  surrender, 
was  brought  to  its  conclusion,  indeed,  after  the  fall  of  Sebas- 
topol ;  but,  although  it  naturally  attracted  peculiar  attention 
in  this  country,  it  could  have  no  effect  on  the  actual  fortunes 
of  such  a  war.  Kars  was  defended  by  Colonel  Fenwick 
Williams,  an  English  ofticer,  who  held  the  place  against 
overwhelming  Russian  forces,  and  against  an  enemy  far  more 
appalling — starvation  itself.  He  had  to  surrender  at  last  to 
famine  ;  but  the  very  articles  of  surrender  to  which  the  con- 
queror consented  became  the  trophy  of  Williams  and  his  men. 
The  garrison  were  allowed  to  leave  the  place  with  all  the 
honours  of  war  ;  and,  '  as  a  testimony  to  the  valorous  resistance 
made  by  the  garrison  of  Kars,  the  officers  of  all  ranks  are  to 
keep  their  swords.'  The  war  was  v^irtually  over.  Austria 
had  been  exerting  herself  throughout  its  progress  in  the 
interests  of  peace,  and  after  the  fall  of  Sebastopol  she 
made  a  new  effort  with  greater  success.  France  and  Russia 
were  indeed  now  anxious  to  be  out  of  the  struggle 
almost  on  any  terms.  If  England  had  held  out,  it  is 
highly  probable  that  she  would  have  had  to  do  so  alone. 
For  this  indeed  Lord  Palmerston  was  fully  prepared  as 
a  lar.t   resource,    sooner  than   submit    to    terms   which    he 


i6o       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.       ch.  XI, 

consiclered  unsatisfactory.  The  Congress  of  Paris  opened 
on  February  26,  1856,  and  on  March  80  the  treaty  of  peace 
was  signed  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  Great  Powers. 
Prussia  had  been  admitted  to  the  Congress,  which  therefore 
represented  England,  France,  Eussia,  Austria,  Prussia,  Turkey 
and  Sardinia. 

By  the  treaty  Kars  was  restored  to  the  Sultan,  and  Sebas- 
topol  and  all  other  places  taken  by  the  allies  were  given  back 
to  Eussia.  The  Great  Powers  engaged  to  respect  the  inde- 
pendence and  territorial  integrity  of  Turkey.  The  Sultan 
issued  a  firman  for  ameliorating  the  condition  of  his  Christian 
subjects,  and  no  right  of  interference,  it  was  distinctly  specified, 
was  given  to  the  other  Powers  by  this  concession  on  the 
Sultan's  part.  The  Black  Sea  was  neutralised ;  its  waters 
and  its  ports  were  thrown  open  to  the  mercantile  marine 
of  every  nation,  and  formally  and  in  perpetuity  interdicted  to 
the  flag  of  war  either  of  the  Powers  possessing  its  coasts  or  of 
any  other  Power,  with  the  exception  of  the  right  of  each  of 
the  Powers  to  have  the  same  number  of  small  armed  vessels  in 
the  Black  Sea  to  act  as  a  sort  of  maritime  police  and  to 
protect  the  coasts.  The  Sultan  and  the  Emperor  engaged  to 
establish  and  maintain  no  military  or  maritime  arsenals  in 
that  sea.  The  navigation  of  the  Danube  was  thrown  open. 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  continuing  under  the  suzerainty  of 
the  Sultan,  were  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  immunities 
they  already  possessed  under  the  guarantee  of  the  contracting 
Powers,  but  with  no  separate  right  of  intervention  in  their 
affairs.  Out  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  united,  after  various 
internal  changes,  there  subsequently  gi'ew  the  kingdom  of 
Eoumania.  The  existing  position  of  Servia  was  secured  by 
the  treaty.  During  time  of  peace  the  Sultan  engaged  to  admit 
no  foreign  ships  of  war  into  the  Bosphorus  or  the  Dardanelles. 

To  guarantee  Turkey  from  the  enemy  they  most  feared 
a  tripartite  treaty  was  afterwards  agreed  to  between  England, 
France  and  Austria.  This  document  bears  date  in  Paris 
April  15,  1856;  by  it  the  contracting  parties  guaranteed 
jointly  and  severally  the  independence  and  integrity  of  the 
Ottoman  empire,  and  declared  that  any  infraction  of  the 
general  treaty  of  March  30  would  be  considered  by  them 
as  cams  hdli.  The  Congress  of  Paris  was  remarkable 
for  the  fact  that  the  plenipotentiaries  before  separating 
came  to  an  agreement  on  the  rules  generally  of  maritime 
war  by  which  privateering  was  abolished.  It  was  agreed, 
however,  that  the  rules  adopted    at  the   Congress   of  Paris 


CH.  XI.  THE   CRIMEAN   WAR,  l6i 

should  only  be  binding  on  those  States  that  had  acceded  or 
should  accede  to  them.  The  United  States  raised  some 
difficulty  about  renouncing  the  right  of  privateering,  and  the 
declarations  of  the  Congress  were  therefore  made  without 
America's  assenting  to  them.  At  the  instigation  of  Count 
Cavour  the  condition  of  Italy  was  brought  before  the  Con- 
gress ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  out  of  the  Congress  and 
the  part  that  Sardinia  assumed  as  representative  of  Italian 
nationality  came  the  succession  of  events  which  ended  in  the 
establishment  of  a  King  of  Italy  in  the  palace  of  the  Quirinal. 
The  adjustment  of  the  condition  of  the  Danubian  principalities 
too  engaged  much  attention  and  discussion,  and  a  highly 
ingenious  arrangement  was  devised  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
those  provinces  from  actual  union,  so  that  they  might  be  cohe- 
rent enough  to  act  as  a  rampart  against  Kussia,  without  being 
so  coherent  as  to  cause  Austria  any  alarm  for  her  own  somewhat 
disjointed,  not  to  say  distracted,  political  system.  All  these 
artificial  and  complex  arrangements  presently  fell  to  pieces, 
and  the  principalities  became  in  course  of  no  very  long  time  an 
united  independent  State  under  a  hereditary  Prince.  But  for 
the  hour  it  was  hoped  that  the  independence  of  Turkey  and  the 
restriction  of  Eussia,  the  security  of  the  Christian  provinces, 
the  neutrality  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  closing  of  the  Straits 
against  war  vessels,  had  been  bought  by  the  war. 

England  lost  some  twenty-four  thousand  men  in  the  war, 
of  whom  hardly  a  sixth  fell  in  battle  or  died  of  wounds. 
Cholera  and  other  diseases  gave  grim  account  of  the  rest. 
Forty- one  millions  of  money  were  added  by  the  campaign  to 
the  National  Debt.  England  became  involved  in  a  quarrel 
with  the  United  States  because  of  our  Foreign  Enlistment 
Act.  At  the  close  of  December  1854  Parliament  hurriedly 
passed  an  Act  authorising  the  formation  of  a  Foreign  Legion 
for  service  in  the  war,  and  some  Swiss  and  Germans  were 
recruited  who  never  proved  of  the  slightest  service.  Prussia 
and  America  both  complained  that  the  zeal  of  our  recruit- 
ing functionaries  outran  the  limits  of  discretion  and  of  law. 
One  of  our  consuls  was  actually  put  on  trial  at  Cologne ; 
and  America  made  a  serious  complaint  of  the  enlistment  of 
her  citizens.  England  apologised ;  but  the  United  States 
were  out  of  temper,  and  insisted  on  sending  our  minister, 
Mr.  Crampton,  away  from  Washington,  and  some  little  time 
passed  before  the  friendly  relations  of  the  two  States  werQ 
completely  restored. 


162        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  xr. 

There  was  a  feeling  of  disappointment  in  this  country  at 
the  close  of  the  war.  Our  soldiers  had  done  splendidly  ;  but 
our  generals  and  our  system  had  done  poorly  indeed.  Only 
one  first-class  reputation  of  a  military  order  had  come  out  of 
the  war,  and  that  was  by  the  common  consent  of  the  world 
awarded  to  a  Russian — to  General  Todleben,  the  defender  of 
Sebastopol.  No  new  name  was  made  on  our  side  or  on  that 
of  the  French  ;  and  some  promising  or  traditional  reputations 
were  shattered.  The  political  results  of  the  war  were  to 
many  minds  equally  unsatisfying.  Lord  Aberdeen  estimated 
that  it  might  perhaps  secure  peace  in  the  East  of  Europe  for 
some  twenty-five  years.  His  modest  expectation  was  pro- 
phetic. Indeed  it  a  little  overshot  the  mark.  Twenty-two 
years  after  the  close  of  the  Crimean  campaign  Eussia  and 
Turkey  were  at  war  again. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    LOECHA    *  ARROW.' — TRANSPORTATION, 

After  the  supposed  settlement  of  the  Eastern  Question  at 
the  Congress  of  Paris,  a  sort  of  languor  seems  to  have  come 
over  Parliament  and  the  public  mind  in  England.  Lord 
John  Russell  proposed  a  series  of  resolutions  to  establish 
in  England  a  genuine  system  of  national  education,  which 
were  of  course  rejected  by  the  House  of  Commons.  Public 
opinion,  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  was  not  nearly 
ripe  for  such  a  principle  then.  One  of  the  regular  attempts 
to  admit  the  Jews  to  Parliament  was  made,  and  succeeded 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  fail,  as  usual,  in  the  House 
of  Lords.  The  House  of  Lords  itself  was  thrown  into 
great  perturbation  for  a  time  by  the  proposal  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  confer  a  peerage  for  life  on  one  of  the  judges, 
Sir  James  Parke.  Lord  Lyndhurst  strongly  opposed  the 
proposal,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  beginning  of  an 
attempt  to  introduce  a  system  of  life-peerages,  which  would 
destroy  the  ancient  and  hereditary  character  of  the  House  of 
Lords.  The  Government,  who  had  really  no  reactionary  or 
revolutionary  designs  in  their  mind,  settled  the  matter  for  the 
time  by  creating  Sir  James  Parke  Baron  Wensleydale  in  the 
usual   way,  and   the  object  they   had   m   view  was  quietly 


CH.  xir.  THE  LORCHA   'ARROW*  163 

accomplished  many  years  later,  when  the  appellate  jurisdiction 
of  the  Lords  was  remodelled. 

Sir  George  Lewis  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  He 
was  as  yet  not  credited  with  anything  like  the  political  ability 
which  he  afterwards  proved  that  he  possessed.  It  was  the 
fashion  to  regard  him  as  a  mere  bookman,  who  had  drifted 
somehow  into  Parliament,  and  who,  in  the  temporary  absence 
of  available  talent,  had  been  thrust  into  the  office  lately  held 
by  Mr.  Gladstone.  The  contrast  indeed  between  the  style  of 
his  speaking  and  that  of  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Mr.  Disraeli  was 
enough  to  dishearten  any  political  assembly.  Sir  George 
Lewis  began  by  being  nearly  inaudible,  and  continued  to  the 
last  to  be  oppressed  by  the  most  ineffective  and  unattractive 
manner  and  delivery.  But  it  began  to  be  gradually  found  out 
that  the  monotonous,  halting,  feeble  manner  covered  a  very 
remarkable  power  of  expression ;  that  the  speaker  had  great 
resources  of  argument,  humour,  and  illustration ;  that  every 
sentence  contained  some  fresh  idea  or  some  happy  expression. 
After  a  while  the  capacity  of  Lewis  ran  the  risk  of  being 
overrated  quite  as  much  as  it  had  been  undervalued  before. 

For  the  present,  however.  Sir  George  Lewis  was  regarded 
cnly  as  the  sort  of  statesman  whom  it  was  fitting  to  have  in 
office  just  then  ;  the  statesman  of  an  interval,  in  whom  no  one 
was  expected  to  take  any  particular  interest.  The  attention 
of  the  public  was  a  good  deal  distracted  from  political  affairs 
by  the  failure  and  frauds  of  the  Eoyal  British  Bank  and  other 
frauds,  which  gave  for  the  time  a  sort  of  idea  that  the  financial 
principles  of  the  country  were  crumbling  to  pieces.  The 
culmination  of  the  extraordinary  career  of  John  Sadleir  was 
fresh  in  public  memory.  This  man  was  the  organiser  and 
guiding  spirit  of  the  Irish  Brigade,  a  gang  of  adventurers  who 
got  into  Parliament  and  traded  on  the  genuine  grievances  of 
their  country  to  get  power  and  money  for  themselves.  John 
Sadleir  embezzled,  swindled,  forged,  and  finally  escaped 
justice  by  committing  suicide  on  Hampstead  Heath.  The 
brother  of  Sadleir  was  expelled  from  the  House  of  Commons ; 
one  of  his  accomplices,  who  had  obtained  a  Government 
appointment  and  had  embezzled  money,  contrived  to  make 
his  escape  to  the  United  States  ;  and  the  Irish  Brigade  was 
broken  up.  It  is  only  just  to  say  that  the  best  representatives 
of  the  Irish  Catholics  and  the  Irish  national  party,  in  and  out 
of  Parliament,  had  never  from  the  first  believed  in  Sadleir 
and  his  band,  and  had  made  persistent  efforts  to  expose  them. 


i64      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  xii. 

About  this  same  time  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field,  an  energetic 
American  merchant,  came  over  to  this  country  to  explain  to 
its  leading  merchants  and  scientific  men  a  plan  he  had  for 
constructing  an  electric  telegraph  line  underneath  the 
Atlantic.  He  was  listened  to  with  polite  curiosity.  Mr. 
Field  had,  however,  a  much  better  reception  on  the  whole 
than  M.  de  Lesseps,  who  came  to  England  a  few  months 
later  to  explain  his  project  for  constructing  a  ship  canal 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez.  His  proposal  was  received  with 
coldness,  and  more  than  coldness,  by  engineers,  capitalists, 
and  politicians. 

The  political  world  seemed  to  have  made  up  its  mind  for  a 
season  of  quiet.  Suddenly  a  storm  broke  out.  The  Sjoeech 
from  the  Throne  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  on  Feb- 
ruary 3,  1857,  stated  that  acts  of  violence,  insults  to  tLe 
British  flag,  and  infraction  of  treaty  rights,  committed  by 
the  local  Chinese  authorities  at  Canton,  and  a  pertinacious 
refusal  of  redress,  had  rendered  it  necessary  for  her  Majesty's 
officers  in  China  to  have  recourse  to  measures  of  force  to 
obtain  satisfaction.  The  alleged  offences  of  the  Chinese 
authorities  at  Canton  had  for  their  single  victim  the  lorcha 
Arro'W.  The  lorcha  Arrotu  was  a  small  boat  built  on  the 
European  model.  The  word  '  Lorcha '  is  taken  from  the 
Portuguese  settlement  at  Macao  at  the  mouth  of  the  Canton 
river.  It  often  occurs  in  treaties  with  the  Chinese  authorities. 
On  October  8,  1856,  a  party  of  Chinese  in  charge  of  an 
officer  boarded  the  Arrotu,  in  the  Canton  river.  They  took 
off  twelve  men  on  a  charge  of  piracy,  leaving  two  men  in 
charge  of  the  lorcha.  The  Arrow  was  declared  by  its  owners 
to  be  a  British  vessel.  Our  Consul  at  Canton,  Mr.  Parkes, 
demanded  from  Yeh,  the  Chinese  Governor  of  Canton,  the 
return  of  the  men,  basing  his  demand  upon  the  Treaty  of 
1843,  supplemental  to  the  Treaty  of  1842.  This  treaty  did 
not  give  the  Chinese  authorities  any  right  to  seize  Chmese 
offenders,  or  supposed  offenders,  on  board  an  English  vessel. 
It  merely  gave  them  a  right  to  require  the  surrender  of  the 
offenders  at  the  hands  of  the  English.  The  Chinese  Gover- 
nor, Yeh,  contended,  however,  that  the  lorcha  was  a  Chinese 
pirate  vessel,  which  had  no  right  whatever  to  hoist  the  flag  of 
England.  It  may  be  plainly  stated  at  once  that  the  Arrotu 
was  not  an  English  vessel,  but  only  a  Chinese  vessel  which 
had  obtained  by  false  pretences  the  temporary  possession  of  a 
British  flag.     Mr.  Consul  Parkes,  however,  was  fussy,  and  he 


CH.  XII.  THE  LORCHA    'ARROW:  165 

demanded  the  instant  restoration  of  the  captured  men,  and  he 
sent  off  to  our  Plenipotentiary  at  Hong  Kong,  Sir  John 
Bowrmg,  for  authority  and  assistance  in  the  business. 

Sir  John  Bowring  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability.  At 
one  time  he  seemed  to  be  a  candidate  for  something  like 
fame.  He  had  a  very  large  and  varied  knowledge  of  Euro- 
pean and  Asiatic  languages,  he  had  travelled  a  great  deal,  and 
had  sat  in  Parliament  for  some  years.  He  understood  political 
economy,  and  had  a  good  knowledge  of  trade  and  commerce. 
He  had  many  friends  and  admirers,  and  he  set  up  early  for  a 
sort  of  great  man.  He  was  full  of  self-conceit,  and  without 
any  very  clear  idea  of  political  principles  on  the  large  scale. 
Bowring  had  been  Consul  for  some  years  at  Canton,  and  he 
had  held  the  post  of  chief  superintendent  of  trade  there.  It 
w^ould  seem  as  if  his  eager  self-conceit  would  not  allow  him 
to  resist  the  temptation  to  display  himself  on  the  field  of 
political  action  as  a  great  English  plenipotentiary  bidding 
England  be  of  good  cheer  and  compelling  inferior  races  to 
grovel  in  the  dust  before  .her.  He  ordered  the  Chinese 
authorities  to  surrender  all  the  men  taken  from  the  Arrotv, 
and  he  insisted  that  an  apology  should  be  offered  for  their 
arrest,  and  a  formal  pledge  given  by  the  Chinese  authorities 
that  no  such  act  should  ever  be  committed  again.  If  this 
were  not  done  wdthin  forty-eight  hours,  naval  operations  were 
to  be  begun  against  the  Chinese.  The  Chinese  Governor, 
Yell,  sent  back  all  the  men,  and  undertook  to  promise  that  for 
the  future  great  care  should  be  taken  that  no  British  ship 
should  be  visited  improperly  by  Chinese  officers.  But  he 
could  not  offer  an  apology  for  the  particular  case  of  the  ArrotUy 
for  he  still  maintained,  as  was  indeed  the  fact,  that  the  Arroio 
was  a  Chinese  vessel,  and  that  the  English  had  nothing  to  do 
with  her.  Accordingly  Sir  John  Bowring  carried  out  his 
threat,  and  had  Canton  bombarded  by  the  fleet  which  Admiral 
Sir  Michael  Seymour  commanded.  From  October  23  to 
November  13  naval  and  military  operations  were  kept  up  con- 
tinuously. Commissioner  Yeh  retaliated  by  foolishly  offermg 
a  reward  for  the  head  of  every  Englishman. 

This  news  from  China  created  a  considerable  sensation  in 
England.  On  February  24,  1857,  Lord  Derby  brought  forward 
in  the  House  of  Lords  a  motion,  comprehensively  condemning 
the  whole  of  the  proceedings  of  the  British  authorities  in 
China.  The  debate  would  have  been  memorable  if  onlj 
for  the  powerful  speech  in  which  the  venerable  Lord  Lynd- 


i66      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xil. 

hurst  supported  the  motion,  and  exposed  the  utter  illegahty 
of  the  course  pursued  by  Sir  John  Bowring.  The  House 
of  Lords  rejected  the  motion  of  Lord  Derby  by  a  majority 
of  146  to  110.  On  February  26  IMr.  Cobden  brought  for- 
ward a  similar  motion  in  the  House  of  Commons.  This 
must  have  been  a  pecuKarly  painful  task  for  Mr.  Cobden. 
He  was  an  old  friend  of  Sir  John  Bowring,  with  whom  he 
had  always  supposed  himself  to  have  many  or  most  opinions 
in  common.  But  he  followed  his  convictions  as  to  public 
duty  in  despite  of  his  personal  friendship.  The  debate  was 
remarkable  more  for  the  singular  political  combination  which 
it  developed  as  it  went  on,  than  even  for  its  varied  ability  and 
eloquence.  Men  spoke  and  voted  on  the  same  side  who  had 
probably  never  been  brought  into  such  companionship  before  and 
never  were  afterwards.  Mr.  Cobden  found  himself  supported  by 
Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  by  Mr.  Koebuck  and  Sir 
E.  B.  Lytton,  by  Lord  John  Kussell  and  Mr.  Whiteside,  by 
Lord  Robert  Cecil,  afterw::rds  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  Sir 
Frederick  Thesiger,  Mr.  Koundell  Palmer,  afterwards  Lord 
Selborne,  Mr.  Sidney  Herjert,  and  Mr.  Milner  Gibson.  Mr. 
Cobden  had  probably  never  dreamed  of  the  amount  or  the 
nature  of  the  support  his  motion  was  destined  to  receive.  The 
vote  of  censure  was  carried  by  263  votes  against  247 — a  majority 
of  16. 

Lord  Palmerston  announced  two  or  three  days  after  that 
the  Government  had  resolved  on  a  dissolution  and  an  appeal 
to  the  country.  Lord  Palmerston  understood  his  countrymen. 
He  knew  that  a  popular  Minister  makes  himself  more  popular 
by  appealing  to  the  country  on  the  ground  that  he  has  been 
condemned  by  the  House  of  Commons  for  upholding  the 
honour  of  England  and  coercing  some  foreign  power  some- 
where. Li  his  address  to  the  electors  of  Tiverton  he  declared 
that  an  insolent  barbarian,  wielding  authority  at  Canton, 
violated  the  British  flag,  broke  the  engagements  of  treaties, 
offered  rewards  for  the  heads  of  British  subjects  in  that  i)art 
of  China,  and  planned  their  destruction  by  murder,  assassina- 
tion, and  poison.  That  of  course  was  all-sufficient.  The 
*  insolent  barbarian '  was  in  itself  almost  enough.  Governor 
Yell  certainly  was  not  a  barbarian.  His  argument  on  the 
subject  of  International  Law  obtained  the  endorsement  of 
Lord  Lyndhurst.  His  Avay  of  arguing  the  political  and  com- 
mercial case  compelled  the  admiration  of  Lord  Derb3\  Hig 
letters  form  a  curious  contrast  to  the  documents  contributed 


CH.  XII.  THE  LORCHA    *  ARROW.'  167 

to  the  controversy  by  the  representatives  of  British  authority 
in  China.  However,  he  became  for  electioneering  purposes 
an  insolent  barbarian ;  and  the  story  of  a  Chinese  baker 
who  was  said  to  have  tried  to  poison  Sir  John  Bowring  was 
transfigured  into  an  attempt  at  the  wholesale  poisoning  of 
Englishmen  in  China  by  the  express  orders  of  the  Chinese 
Governor.  Lord  Pahnerston's  victory  was  complete.  Cobden, 
Bright,  Milner  Gibson,  W.  J.  Fox,  Layard,  and  many  other 
leading  opponents  of  the  Chinese  policy,  were  left  without 
seats.  Lord  Palmerston  came  back  to  power  with  renewed  and 
redoubled  strength.  A  little  war  with  Persia  came  to  an  end 
in  time  to  give  him  another  claim  as  a  conqueror  on  the 
sympathies  of  the  constituencies.  In  the  Koyal  Speech  at 
the  opening  of  Parliament  it  was  announced  that  the  differ- 
ences between  this  country  and  China  still  remained  unad- 
justed, and  that  therefore  her  Majesty  had  sent  to  China  a 
Plenipotentiary  who  would  be  supported  by  an  adequate  naval 
and  military  force  if  necessary.  The  Government,  however, 
had  more  serious  business  with  which  to  occupy  themselves 
before  they  were  at  liberty  to  turn  to  the  easy  work  of  coercing 
the  Chinese. 

The  new  Parliament  was  engaged  for  some  time  in  passing 
the  Act  abolishing  the  ancient  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  respecting  divorce,  and  setting  up  a  regular  court  of 
law,  the  Divorce  and  Matrimonial  Causes  Court,  to  deal  with 
questions  between  husband  and  wife.  The  passing  of  tho 
Divorce  Act  was  strongly  contested  in  both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  indeed  was  secured  at  last  only  by  Lord  Pahnerston's 
intimating  very  significantly  that  he  w^ould  keep  the  Houses 
sitting  until  the  measure  had  been  disposed  of.  Mr.  Gladstone, 
in  particular,  offered  to  the  bill  a  most  strenuous  opposition. 

The  year  1857  saw  the  abolition  of  the  system  of  trans- 
portation. Transportation  as  a  means  of  getting  rid  of  part  of 
our  criminal  population  dates  from  the  time  of  Charles  H., 
when  the  judges  gave  power  for  the  removal  of  offenders  to 
the  North  American  colonies.  It  was  first  regularly  intro- 
duced into  our  criminal  law  in  1717,  by  an  Act  of  Parliament. 
In  1787  a  cargo  of  criminals  was  shipped  out  to  Botany  Bay, 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  New  South  Wales,  and  near  Sydney, 
the  present  thriving  capital  of  the  colony.  Afterwards  the 
convicts  w^ere  also  sent  to  Van  Diemen's  Land,  or  Tasmania  ; 
and  to  Norfolk  Island,  a  lonely  island  in  the  Pacific,  some 
eight  hundred  miles  from  the  New  South  Wales  shore.   Norfolk 


r 


I68      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVN   TIMES.      CH.  xii. 

Island  became  the  penal  settlement  for  the  convicted  among 
convicts  ;  that  is  to  say,  criminals  who,  after  transportation 
to  New  South  Wales,  committed  new  crimes  there,  might  be  sent 
by  the  Colonial  authorities  for  sterner  punishment  to  Norfolk 
Island.  It  looked  as  if  the  system  ought  to  be  satisfactory  in 
every  way  and  to  everybody.  The  convicts  were  provided  with  a 
new  career,  a  new  country,  and  a  chance  of  reformation.  They 
were  usually  after  a  while  released  from  actual  durance  in  the 
penal  settlement,  and  allowed  conditionally  to  find  employ- 
ment, and  to  make  themselves,  if  they  could,  good  citizens. 
Their  labour,  it  was  thought,  would  be  of  great  service  to  the 
colonists.  But  the  colonists  very  soon  began  to  complain.  The 
convicts  who  had  spent  their  period  of  probation  in  hulks  or 
prisons  generally  left  those  homes  of  horror  with  nature  so 
brutalised  as  to  make  their  intrusion  into  any  community  of 
decent  persons  an  insufferable  nuisance.  Pent  up  in  penal 
settlements  by  themselves,  the  convicts  turned  into  demons  ; 
drafted  into  an  inhabited  colony,  they  were  too  numerous  to" 
be  wholly  absorbed  by  the  population,  and  they  carried  their 
contagion  along  with  them.  New  South  Wales  and  Tasmania 
began  to  protest  against  behig  made  the  refuse-ground  for  our 
scoundrelism.  Only  in  Western  Australia  were  the  people  will- 
ing to  receive  them  on  any  conditions,  and  Western  Australia 
had  but  scanty  natural  resources  and  could  in  any  case  harbour 
very  few  of  our  outcasts.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  Australia 
settled  the  question  of  those  colonies  being  troubled  any  more 
with  our  transportation  system  ;  for  the  greatest  enthusiast 
for  transportation  would  hardly  propose  to  send  out  gangs  of 
criminals  to  a  region  glowing  with  the  temptations  of  gold. 

The  question  then  arose  Avliat  was  England  to  do  with  the 
criminals  whom  up  to  that  time  she  had  been  able  to  shovel 
out  of  her  way.  All  the  receptacles  were  closed  but  Western 
Australia,  and  that  counted  for  almost  nothing.  In  1853  a 
bill  was  brought  in  by  the  Ministry  to  substitute  penal  servi- 
tude for  transportation,  unless  in  cases  where  the  sentence  was 
for  fourteen  years  and  upwards.  The  bill  reduced  the  scale 
of  punishment ;  that  is  to  say,  made  a  shorter  period  of  penal 
servitude  supply  the  place  of  a  longer  term  of  transportation. 
Lord  Palmerston  was  Home  Secretary  at  this  time.  It  was 
during  the  passing  of  the  bill  through  the  House  of  Lords  that 
Lord  Grey  suggested  the  introduction  of  a  modification  of  the 
ticket-of-leave  system  which  was  in  practice  in  the  colonies. 
The  principle  of  the  ticket-of-leave  was  that  the  convict  should 


cii.  xii.  TRANSPORTATION'.  169 

not  be  kept  in  custody  during  the  whole  period  of  his  sentence, 
but  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  pass  through  a  period  of 
conditional  liberty  before  he  obtained  his  full  and  unrestricted 
freedom.  Now  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  principle  of 
the  ticket-of-leave  is  excellent.  But  it  proved  on  its  first  trial 
in  this  country  the  most  utter  delusion.  It  got  no  fair  chance 
at  all.  It  was  understood  by  the  whole  English  public  that 
the  object  of  the  ticket-of-leave  was  to  enable  the  authorities 
to  give  a  conditional  discharge  from  custody  to  a  man  who  had 
in  some  way  proved  his  fitness  for  such  a  relaxation  of  punish- 
ment, and  that  the  eye  of  the  police  would  be  on  him  even 
during  the  period  of  his  conditional  release.  This  was  in  fact 
the  construction  put  on  the  Act  in  Ireland,  where  accordingly 
the  ticket-of-leave  system  was  worked  with  the  most  complete 
success  under  the  management  of  Sir  Walter  Crofton,  chair- 
man of  the  Board  of  Prison  Directors,  A  man  w^ho  had  Sir 
Walter  Crofton's  ticket-of-leave  was  known  by  that  very  fact 
to  have  given  earnest  of  good  purpose  and  steady  character. 
The  system  in  Ireland  was  therefore  all  that  its  authors  could 
have  wished  it  to  be.  But  for  some  inscrutable  reason  the 
Act  was  interpreted  in  this  country  as  simply  giving  every 
convict  a  right,  after  a  certain  period  of  detention,  to  claim  a 
ticket-of-leave,  provided  he  had  not  grossly  violated  any  of  the 
regulations  of  the  prison  or  misconducted  himself  in  some 
outrageous  manner. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  examine  the  working  of  such  a 
system.  A  number  of  scoundrels  whom  the  judges  had  sen- 
tenced to  be  kept  in  durance  for  so  many  years  were  without 
any  conceivable  reason  turned  loose  upon  society  long  before 
the  expiration  of  their  sentence.  They  were  in  England 
literally  turned  loose  upon  society,  for  it  was  held  by  the 
authorities  here  that  it  might  possibly  interfere  with  the 
chance  of  a  gaol-bird's  getting  employment,  if  he  were  seen 
to  be  watched  by  the  police.  The  police  therefore  were  con- 
siderately ordered  to  refrain  from  looking  after  them.  Fifty 
per  cent,  of  the  ruffians  released  on  ticket-of-leave  were  after- 
wards brought  up  for  new  crimes,  and  convicted  over  again. 
Of  those  who  although  not  actually  convicted  were  believed 
to  have  relapsed  into  their  old  habits,  from  sixty  to  seventy 
per  cent,  relapsed  within  the  first  year  of  their  liberation. 
Baron  Bramwell  stated  from  the  bench  that  he  had  had 
instances  of  criminals  coming  before  him  who  had  three 
sentences  overlapping  each  other.     The  convict  w^as  set  free 

8 


170     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  xii. 

on  ticket-of-leave,  convicted  of  some  new  crime,  and  re-com- 
mitted to  prison  ;  released  again  on  tickct-of-leave,  and  con- 
victed once  again,  before  the  period  of  his  original  sentence 
had  expired.  An  alarm  sprang  up  in  England.  The  result  of 
the  public  alarm  and  the  Parliamentary  reconsideration  of  the 
whole  subject  was  the  bill  brought  in  by  Sir  George  Grey  in 
1857.  This  measure  extended  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of 
1853  by  substituting  in  all  cases  a  sentence  of  penal  servitude 
for  one  oi  transportation,  abolished  the  old-fashioned  trans- 
portation system  altogether,  but  it  left  the  power  to  the 
authorities  to  have  penal  servitude  carried  out  in  any  of  the 
colonies  where  it  might  be  thought  expedient.  The  Govern- 
ment had  still  some  idea  of  utilising  Western  Australia  for 
some  of  our  offenders.  But  nothing  came  of  this  plan,  or  of 
the  clause  in  the  new  Act  which  was  passed  to  favour  it ;  a  ad 
as  a  matter  of  fact  transportation  was  abolished.  How  the 
amended  legislation  worked  in  other  respects  we  shall  have  an 
opportunity  of  examining  hereafter. 

The  Gretna  Green  marriages  became  illegal  in  1857,  their 
doom  having  been  fixed  for  that  time  by  an  Act  passed  in  the 
previous  session.  Thenceforward  such  marriages  were  un- 
lawful, unless  one  of  the  parties  had  lived  at  least  twenty-one 
days  previously  in  Scotland. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    INDIAN    MUTINY. 

In  May  1857  the  great  Indian  Mutiny  shook  to  its  foundations 
the  whole  fabric  of  British  rule  in  Hindostan.  Throughout 
the  greater  part  of  the  north  and  north-west  of  the  great 
Indian  peninsula  there  was  a  rebellion  of  the  native  races 
against  English  power.  It  was  not  by  any  means  a  merely 
military  mutiny.  It  was  a  combination  of  military  grievance, 
national  hatred  and  religious  fanaticism,  against  the  English 
occupiers  of  India.  The  native  princes  and  the  native  soldiers 
were  in  it.  The  Mohammedan  and  the  Hindoo  forgot  their 
own  religious  antipathies  to  join  against  the  Christian.  Let 
us  first  see  what  were  the  actual  facts  of  the  outbreak. 
When  the  improved  (Enfield)  rifle  was  introduced  into  the 
Indian  army  in  185G,  the  idea  got  abroad  that  the  cartridges 
were  made  up  in  paper  greased  with  a  mixture  of  cow's  fat 


cii.  xin.  THE  INDIAN-  MUTINY.  I'Jt 

and  hog's  lard.     It   appears  that  the  paper  was   actually 
greased,  but  not  with  any  such  material  as  that  which  religious 
alarm  suggested  to  the  native  troops.     Now  a  mixture  of  cow's 
fat  and  hog's  lard  would  have  been,  above  all  things,  unsuit- 
able for  use  in  cartridges  to  be  distributed  among  our  Sepoys ; 
for  the  Hindoo  regards   the   cow  with  religious  veneration, 
and  the  Mohammedan  looks  upon  the  hog  with  utter  loathing. 
In  the  mind  of  the  former  something  sacred  to  him  was  pro- 
faned ;  in  that  of  the  latter  something  unclean  and  abomin- 
able was  forced  upon  his  daily  use.    Various  efforts  were  made 
to  allay  the  panic  among  the  native  troops.     The  use  of  the 
cartridges  complained  of  was  discontinued  by  orders  issued  in 
January  1857.     The  Governor- General  sent  out  a  proclama- 
tion in  the  following  May,  assuring  the  army  of  Bengal  that 
the  tales  told  to  them  of  offence  to  their  religion  or  injury  to 
their  caste  being  meditated  by  the  Government  of  India  were 
all  malicious  inventions  and  falsehoods.     Still  the  idea  was 
strong   among   the   troops   that   some   design   against   their 
religion  was  meditated.     A  mutinous  spirit  began  to  spread 
itself  abroad.     In  March  some  of  the  native  regiments  nad 
to  be  disbanded.     In  April  some  executions  of  Sepoys  took 
place  for  gross  and  open  mutiny.     In  the  same  month  several 
of  the  native  Bengal  cavalry  in  Meerut   refused  to  use   the 
cartridges  served  out  to  them,  although  they  had  been  authori- 
tatively assured  that  the  paper  in  which  the  cartridges  were 
wrapped  had  never  been  touched  by  any  offensive  material. 
On  May  9  these  men  were  sent  to  the  gaol.     They  had  been 
tried  by  court-martial,  and  were  sentenced,  eighty  of  them, 
to  imprisonment  and  hard  labour  for  ten  years,  the  remaining 
five  to  a  similar  punishment  for  six  years.     They  had  chains 
put  on  them  in  the  presence  of  their  comrades,  who  no  doubt 
regarded  them  as  martyrs  to  their  religious  faith,  and  they 
were   thus  publicly  marched  off  to  the  common  gaol.     The 
guard  placed  over  the  gaol  actually  consisted  of  Sepoys. 

The  following  day,  Sunday,  May  10,  was  memorable. 
The  native  troops  in  Meerut  broke  into  open  mutiny.  They 
fired  upon  their  officers,  killed  a  colonel  and  others,  broke 
into  the  gaol,  released  their  comrades,  and  massacred  several- 
of  the  European  inhabitants.  The  European  troops  rallied 
and  drove  them  from  their  cantonments  or  barracks.  Then 
came  the  momentous  event,  the  turning  point  of  the  mutiny : 
the  act  that  marked  out  its  character,  and  made  it  what  it 
afterwards  became.     Meerut  is  an  important  military  station 


172      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     Cii.  xiii. 

between  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  thirty-eight  miles  north- 
east from  Delhi.  In  the  vast  palace  of  Delhi,  almost  a  city  in 
itself,  lived  the  aged  King  of  Delhi,  as  he  was  called ;  the 
disestablished,  but  not  wdiolly  disendowed,  sovereign,  the  de- 
scendant of  the  great  Timour,  the  last  representative  of  the 
Grand  Mogul.  The  mutineers  fled  along  the  road  to  Delhi ; 
and  some  evil  fate  directed  that  they  were  not  to  be  pursued 
or  stopped  on  their  way.  Unchecked,  unpursued,  they,  burst 
into  Delhi,  and  swarmed  into  the  precincts  of  the  palace  of 
the  king.  They  claimed  his  protection ;  they  insisted  upon 
his  accepting  their  cause  and  themselves.  They  proclaimed 
him  Emperor  of  India,  and  planted  the  standard  of  rebellion 
against  English  rule  on  the  battlements  of  his  palace.  They 
had  found  in  one  moment  a  leader,  a  flag  and  a  cause,  and 
the  Mutiny  was  transfigured  into  a  revolutionary  war.  The 
Sepoy  troops,  in  the  city  and  the  cantonments  on  the  Delhi 
ridge,  two  miles  off,  and  overlooking  the  city,  at  once  began 
to  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  mutineers.  The  poor  old  puppet 
whom  they  set  up  as  their  emperor  was  a  feeble  creature, 
Bome  eighty  years  of  age.  He  had  long  been  merely  a  pensioner 
of  the  East  India  Company.  But  he  was  the  representative 
of  the  great  dynasty  whose  name  and  effigies  had  been  borne 
by  all  the  coin  of  India  until  some  twenty  years  before.  He 
stood  for  legitimacy  and  divine  right ;  and  he  supplied  all  the 
various  factions  and  sects  of  which  the  mutiny  was  composed, 
or  to  be  composed,  with  a  visible  and  an  acceptable  head.  If 
the  mutineers  flying  from  Meerut  had  been  promptly  pursued 
and  dispersed,  or  captured,  before  they  reached  Delhi,  the  tale 
we  have  to  tell  might  have  been  shorter  and  very  different. 
But  when  they  reached,  unchecked,  the  Jumna  glittering  in 
the  morning  light,  when  they  sw^armed  across  the  bridge  of 
boats  that  spanned  it,  and  when  at  length  they  clamoured 
under  the  windows  of  the  palace  that  they  had  come  to  restore 
the  rule  of  the  Delhi  dynasty,  they  had  all  unconsciously 
seized  one  of  the  great  critical  moments  of  history,  and  con- 
verted a  military  mutiny  into  a  national  and  religious  war. 

This  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Indian  Eebellion  began 
and  assumed  its  distinct  character.  Mutinies  were  not 
novelties  in  India.  There  had  been  some  very  serious  out- 
breaks before  the  time  oi  the  greased  cartridges.  But  tliere 
was  a  combination  of  circumstances  at  work  to  bring  about 
this  revolt  which  affected  variously  but  at  once  the  army,  the 
princes,  and  the  populations  of  India.     Let  us  speak  first  of 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY,  173 

tlie  army.  The  Bengal  army  was  very  different  in  its  consti- 
tution and  conditions  from  that  of  Bombay  or  Madras,  the 
other  great  divisions  of  Indian  Government  at  that  time.  In 
the  Bengal  army,  the  Hindoo  Sepoys  were  far  more  numer- 
ous than  the  Mohammedans,  and  were  chiefly  Brahmins  of 
high  caste ;  while  in  Madras  and  -Bombay  the  army  was 
made  up,  as  the  Bengal  regiments  are  now,  of  men  of  all 
sects  and  races  without  discrimination.  Until  the  very  year 
before  the  Mutiny  the  Bengal  soldier  was  only  enlisted  for 
service  in  India,  and  was  exempted  from  any  liability  to  be 
sent  across  the  seas ;  across  the  black  water  which  the  Sepoy 
dreaded  and  hated  to  have  to  cross.  No  such  exemption  was 
allowed  to  the  soldiers  of  Bombay  or  Madi*as  ;  and  in  July  1856 
an  order  was  issued  by  the  military  authorities  to  the  effect  that 
future  enlistments  in  Bengal  should  be  for  service  anywhere 
without  limitation.  Thus  the  Bengal  Sepoy  had  not  only 
been  put  in  the  position  of  a  privileged  and  pampered  favourite, 
but  he  had  been  subjected  to  the  indignity  and  disappointment 
of  seeing  his  privileges  taken  away  from  him. 

But  we  must  above  all  other  things  take  into  account,  when 
considering  the  position  of  the  Hindoo  Sepoy,  the  influence  of  the 
tremendous  institution  of  caste.  An  Englishman  or  European 
of  any  country  will  have  to  call  his  imaginative  faculties  some- 
what vigorously  to  his  aid  in  order  to  get  even  an  idea  of  the  power 
of  this  monstrous  superstition.  The  man  who  by  tlie  merest 
accident,  by  the  slightest  contact  with  anything  that  defiled, 
had  lost  caste,  was  excommunicated  from  among  the  living, 
and  was  held  to  be  for  ever  more  accurst  of  God.  His  dearest 
friend,  his  nearest  relation  shrank  back  from  him  in  alai'm  and 
abhorrence.  Now,  it  had  become  from  various  causes  a  strong 
suspicion  in  the  mind  of  the  Sepoy  that  there  was  a  deliberate 
purpose  in  the  minds  of  the  English  rulers  of  the  country  to 
defile  the  Hmdoos,  and  to  bring  them  all  to  the  dead  level  of 
one  caste  or  no  caste.  No  doubt  there  was  in  many  instances 
a  lack  of  consideration  shown  for  the  Hindoo's  peculiar  and 
very  perplexing  tenets.  To  many  a  man  fresh  from  the  ways 
of  England,  the  Hindoo  doctrines  and  practices  appeared  so 
ineffably  absurd  that  he  could  not  believe  any  human  beings 
were  serious  in  their  devotion  to  them,  and  he  took  no  pains 
to  conceal  his  opinion  as  to  the  absurdity  of  the  creed,  and  the 
hypocrisy  of  those  who  professsd  it.  Some  of  the  elder 
officers  and  civilians  were  imbued  very  strongly  with  a  con- 
viction that  t]ie  work  of  open  proselytise  was  part  of  their 


174      ^  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xiil. 

duty ;  and  in  the  best  faith  and  with  the  purest  intentions 
they  thus  strengthened  the  growing  suspicion  that  the  mind 
of  the  authorities  was  set  on  the  defilement  of  the  Hindoos. 
Nor  was  it  among  the  Hindoos  alone  that  the  alarm  began  to 
be  spread  abroad.  It  was  the  conviction  of  the  Mohammedans 
that  their  faith  and  their  rites  were  to  be  tampered  with  as  well. 
It  was  whispered  among  them  every  where  that  the  peculiar  bap- 
tismal custom  of  the  Mohammedans  was  to  be  suppressed  bylaw, 
and  Mohammedan  women  were  to  be  compelled  to  go  unveiled  in 
public.  The  slightest  alterations  in  any  system  gave  fresh  con- 
firmation to  the  suspicions  that  were  afloat  among  the  Hindoos 
and  Mussulmans.  When  a  change  w^as  made  in  the  arrange- 
ments of  the  prisons,  and  the  native  prisoners  were  no  longer 
allowed  to  cook  for  themselves,  a  murmur  went  abroad  that  this 
was  the  first  overt  act  in  the  conspiracy  to  destroy  the  caste, 
and  with  it  the  bodies  and  souls  of  the  Hindoos.  Another 
change  must  be  noticed  too.  At  one  time  it  was  intended  that 
the  native  troops  should  be  commanded  for  the  most  part  by 
native  officers.  The  men  would,  therefore,  have  had  some- 
thing like  sufficient  security  that  their  religious  scruples  were 
regarded  and  respected.  But  by  degrees  the  natives  were 
shouldered  out  of  the  high  positions,  until  at  length  it  became 
practically  an  army  of  native  rank  and  file  commanded  by 
Englishmen.  If  we  remember  that  a  Hindoo  sergeant  of 
lower  caste  would,  when  off  parade,  often  abase  himself  with 
his  forehead  in  the  dust  before  a  Sepoy  private  who  belonged 
to  the  Brahmin  order,  we  shall  have  some  idea  of  the  per- 
petual collision  between  military  discipline  and  religious  prin- 
ciple which  afiected  the  Hindoo  members  of  an  army  almost 
exclusively  commanded  by  Europeans  and  Christians. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  army  and  of  its  religious  scruples ; 
we  must  now  speak  of  the  territorial  rjid  political  influences 
which  affected  the  princes  and  the  populations  of  India. 
Lord  Dalhousie  had  not  long  left  India  on  the  appointment 
of  Lord  Canning  to  the  Governor- Generalship  when  the 
Mutiny  broke  out.  Lord  Dalhousie  was  a  man  of  command- 
ing energy,  of  indomitable  courage,  with  the  intellect  of  a 
ruler  of  men,  and  the  spirit  of  a  conqueror.  He  was  un- 
doubtedly a  great  man.  He  had  had  some  Parliamentary  experi- 
ence in  England  and  in  both  Houses  ;  and  he  had  been  Vice- 
President  and  subsequently  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
under  Sir  BobertPeel.  Hehad  taken  great  interest  in  tli  3  framing 
of  regulations  for  the  railway  legislation  of  the  mania  season 


CH.  xill.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY,  175 

of  1844  and  1845.  Towards  the  close  of  1847  Lord  Dalliousie 
was  sent  out  to  India.  Never  was  there  m  any  country  an  ad- 
mmistration  of  more  successful  activity  than  that  of  Lord  Dal- 
housie.  He  introduced  cheap  postage  into  India  ;  he  made  rail- 
ways ;  he  set  up  lines  of  electric  telegraph.  He  devoted  much 
of  his  attention  to  irrigation,  to  the  making  of  great  roads,  to 
the  work  of  the  Ganges  Canal.  He  was  the  founder  of  a 
comprehensive  system  of  native  education.  He  put  down 
infanticide,  the  Thug  system,  and  he  carried  out  with  vigour 
Lord  William  Bentinck's  Act  for  the  suppression  of  the  Suttee 
or  burning  of  widows  on  the  funeral  pile  of  their  husbands. 
But  Lord  Dalhousie  was  not  wholly  engaged  in  such  works  as 
these.  During  his  few  years  of  office  he  annexed  the  Punjaub  ; 
he  incorporated  part  of  the  Burmese  territory  in  our  dominions ; 
he  annexed  Nagpore,  Sattara,  Jhansi,  Berar  and  Oudli.  In  the 
Punjaub  the  annexation  was  provoked  by  the  murder  of  some 
of  our  officers,  sanctioned,  if  not  actually  ordered,  by  a  native 
prince.  Lord  Dalhousie  marched  a  force  into  the  Punjaub. 
This  land,  the  '  land  of  the  five  waters,'  lies  at  the  gatew^ay  of 
Hindostan,  and  was  peopled  by  Mussulmans,  Hindoos,  and 
Sikhs,  the  latter  a  new  sect  of  reformed  Hindoos.  We  found 
arrayed  against  us  not  only  the  Sikhs  but  our  old  enemies  the 
Afghans.  Lord  Gough  was  in  command  of  our  forces.  He 
fought  rashly  and  disastrously  the  famous  battle  of  Chillian- 
wallah  :  he  was  defeated.  But  he  wholly  recovered  his  position 
by  the  complex  defeat  which  he  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  at 
Goojrat.  Never  w^as  a  victory  more  complete  in  itself  or  more 
promptly  and  effectively  follow^ed  up.  The  Sikhs  Avere  crushed ; 
the  Afghans  were  driven  in  wild  rout  back  across  their  savage 
passes  ;  and  Lord  Dalhousie  annexed  the  Punjaub.  He  pre- 
sented as  one  token  of  his  conquest  the  famous  diamond,  the 
Koh-i-noor,  surrendered  in  evidence  of  submission  by  the 
Maharajah  of  Lahore,  to  the  Crown  of  England. 

Lord  Dalhousie  annexed  Oudh  on  the  ground  that  the 
East  India  Company  had  bound  themselves  to  defend  the 
sovereigns  of  Oudli  against  foreign  and  domestic  enemies  on 
condition  that  the  State  should  be  governed  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  render  the  lives  and  property  of  its  population  safe  ;  and 
that  while  the  Company  performed  their  part  of  the  contract, 
the  King  of  Oudh  so  governed  his  dominions  as  to  make  his  rule 
a  curse  to  his  own  people,  and  to  all  neighbouring  territories. 
Other  excuses  or  justifications  there  were  of  course  in  the  case 
of  each  other  annexation ;  and  we  shall  yet  hear  some  more  of 


176      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xiii. 

what  came  of  the  annexation  of  Sattara  and  Jhansi.  If, 
however,  each  of  these  acts  of  pohcy  were  not  only  justifiable 
but  actually  inevitable,  none  the  less  must  a  succession  of  such 
acts  produce  a  profound  emotion  among  the  races  in  whose 
midst  they  were  accomplished.  The  populations  of  India 
became  stricken  with  alarm  as  they  saw  their  native  princes 
liius  successively  dethroned.  The  subversion  of  thrones,  the 
annexation  of  states,  seemed  to  them  naturally  enough  to 
form  part  of  that  vast  scheme  for  rooting  out  all  the  religicms 
and  systems  of  India,  concerning  which  so  many  vague  fore- 
bodings had  darkly  warned  the  land.  Many  of  our  Sepoys 
came  from  Oudh  and  other  annexed  territories,  and  little 
reason  as  they  might  have  had  for  any  personal  attachment  to 
the  subverted  dynasties,  they  yet  felt  that  national  resentment 
which  any  manner  of  foreign  intervention  is  almost  certain  to 
provoke. 

There  were  peculiar  reasons  too  why,  if  religious  and 
political  distrust  did  prevail,  the  moment  of  Lord  Canning's 
accession  to  the  supreme  authority  in  India  should  seem  inviting 
and  favourable  for  schemes  of  sedition.  The  Afghan  war  had 
told  the  Sepoy  that  British  troops  are  not  absolutely  invincible 
in  battle.  The  impression  produced  almost  everywhere  in 
India  by  the  Crimean  war  was  a  conviction  that  the  strength 
of  England  was  o]i  the  wane.  The  Sepoy  saw  that  the  English 
force  in  Northern  India  was  very  small ;  and  he  really  believed 
that  it  was  small  because  England  had  no  moi*e  men  to  send 
there.  In  his  mind  Kussia  was  the  great  rising  and  conquer- 
ing country  ;  England  was  sinking  into  decay  ;  her  star  waning 
before  the  strong  glare  of  the  portentous  northern  light. 
Moreover  Lord  Canning  had  hardly  assumed  office  as  Gover- 
nor-General of  India,  when  the  dispute  occurred  between  the 
British  and  Chinese  authorities  at  Canton,  and  almost  at  the 
same  moment  war  was  declared  against  Persia  by  proclamation 
of  the  Governor- General  at  Calcutta,  in  consequence  of  the 
Shah  having  marched  an  army  into  Herat  and  besieged  it,  in 
violation  of  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain  made  in  1853.  A  body 
of  troops  was  sent  from  Bombay  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and 
shortly  after  General  Outram  left  Bombay  with  additional 
troops,  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  field  force  in  Persia. 
Therefore,  in  the  opening  days  of  1857,  it  was  known  among 
the  native  populations  of  India  that  the  East  India  Company 
was  at  wa,r  with  Persia  and  that  England  had  on  her  hands  a 
(juarrel  with  China.    The  native  army  of  the  three  Presidenciea 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  177 

taken  together  was  nearly  three  hundred  thousand,  while  the 
Europeans  were  but  forty-three  thousand,  of  whom  some  five 
thousand  had  just  been  told  off  for  duty  in  Persia.  It  must 
be  o^^ned  that,  given  the  existence  of  a  seditious  spirit,  it 
would  have  been  hardly  possible  for  it  to  find  conditions  more 
seemingly  favourable  and  tempting.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  a  conspiracy  for  the  subversion  of  the  English  govern- 
ment in  India  was  afoot  during  the  early  days  of  1857,  and 
possibly  for  long  before.  The  story  of  the  mysterious 
clmpatties  is  well  known.  The  chupatties  are  small  cakes 
of  unleavened  bread,  and  they  were  found  to  be  distributed 
with  amazing  rapidity  and  precision  of  system  at  one  time 
throughout  the  native  villages  of  the  north  and  north-west. 
In  no  instance  were  they  distributed  among  the  popula- 
tions of  still-existing  native  States.  They  were  only  sent 
among  the  villages  over  which  English  rule  extended.  A 
native  messe'nger  brought  two  of  these  mysterious  cakes  to 
the  watchman  or  headman  of  a  village,  and  bade  him  to 
have  others  prepared  like  them,  and  to  pass  them  on  to 
another  place.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  chupatties 
conveyed  a  warning  to  all  who  received  them  that  something 
strange  was  about  to  happen,  and  bade  them  to  be  prepared 
for  whatever  might  befall. 

The  news  of  the  outbreak  at  Meerut,  and  the  proclamation 
in  Delhi,  broke  upon  Calcutta  with  the  shock  of  a  thunder 
clap.  For  one  or  two  days  Calcutta  was  a  prey  to  mere  panic. 
The  alarm  v/as  greatly  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  dethroned 
King  of  Oudh  was  living  near  to  the  city,  at  Garden  Reach,  a 
few  miles  down  the  Hooghly.  The  inhabitants  of  Calcutta,  when 
the  news  of  the  Mutiny  came,  were  convinced  that  the  palace 
of  the  King  of  Oudli  was  the  head-quarters  of  rebellion,  and 
were  expecting  the  moment  when,  from  the  residence  at 
Garden  Eeach,  an  organised  army  of  murderers  was  to  be 
sent  forth  to  capture  and  destroy  the  ill-fated  city,  and  to 
make  its  streets  run  with  the  blood  of  its  massacred  inhabi- 
tants. Lord  Canning  took  the  prudent  course  of  having 
the  king  with  his  prime  minister  removed  to  the  Governor- 
General's  own  residence  within  the  precincts  of  Fort  William. 
If  ever  the  crisis  found  the  man,  Lord  Canning  was  the  man 
called  for  by  that  crisis  in  India.  He  had  all  the  divining 
genius  of  ^  the  true  statesman  ;  the  man  who  can  rise  to  the 
height  of  some  unexpected  and  new  emergency  ;  and  he  had 
the  cool  courage  of  a  practised  conqueror.     Among  aU  the 


178      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xill. 

distracting  counsels  and  wild  stones  poured  in  upon  him  from 
every  side,  he  kept  his  mind  clear.  He  never  gave  way  either 
to  anger  or  to  alarm.  If  he  ever  showed  a  little  impatience, 
it  was  only  where  panic  would  too  openly  have  proclaimed 
itself  by  counsels  of  wholesale  cruelty.  He  could  not,  per- 
haps, always  conceal  from  frightened  people  the  fact  that  he 
rather  despised  their  terrors.  Throughout  the  whole  of  that 
excited  period  there  were  few  names,  even  among  the  chiefs 
of  rebellion,  on  which  fiercer  denunciation  was  showered  by 
Englishmen  than  the  name  of  Lord  Canning.  Because  he 
would  not  listen  to  the  bloodthirsty  clamours  of  mere  frenzy, 
he  was  nicknamed  *  Clemency  Canning,'  as  if  clemency  were 
a;n  attribute  of  which  a  man  ought  to  be  ashamed.  Indeed, 
for  some  time  people  wrote  and  spoke,  not  merely  in  India 
but  in  England,  as  if  clemency  were  a  thing  to  be  reprobated, 
like  treason  or  crime.  For  a  while  it  seemed  a  question  of 
patriotism  which  would  propose  the  most  savage  and  sanguinary 
measures  of  revenge.  Mr.  Disraeli,  to  do  him  justice,  raised 
his  voice  in  remonstrance  against  the  wild  passions  of  the 
hour,  even  when  these  passions  were  strongest  and  most 
general.  He  declared  that  if  such  a  temper  were  encouraged 
we  ought  to  take  down  from  our  altars  the  image  of  Christ 
and  raise  the  statue  of  Moloch  there.  If  people  were  so 
carried  away  in  England,  where  the  danger  was  far  remote, 
we  can  easily  imagine  what  were  the  fears  and  passions 
roused  in  India,  where  the  terror  was  or  might  be  at  the 
door  of  everyone.  Lord  Canning  was  gravely  embarrassed 
by  the  wild  urgencies  and  counsels  of  distracted  Englishmen, 
wlio  were  furious  with  him  because  he  even  thought  of 
distinguishing  friend  from  foe  where  native  races  were  con- 
cerned. But  he  bore  himself  with  perfect  calmness.  He 
was  greatly  assisted  and  encouraged  in  his  counsels  by 
his  brave  and  noble  wife,  who  proved  herself  in  every  way 
worthy  to  be  the  helpmate  of  such  a  man  at  such  a  crisis. 
He  did  not  for  a  moment  under-estimate  the  danger ;  but 
neither  did  he  exaggerate  its  importance.  He  never  allowed 
it  to  master  him.  He  looked  upon  it  with  the  quiet,  resolute 
eye  of  one  who  is  determined  to  be  the  conqueror  in  the 
struggle. 

Lord  Canning  saw  that  the  one  important  thing  was  to 
strike  at  Delhi,  which  had  proclaimed  itself  the  licOid- quarters 
of  tlie  rebellion.  He  knew  that  Englisli  troops  were  on  their 
way  to  China   for  the  purpose   of  wreaking  the  wrongs   of 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  179 

English  subjects  there,  and  he  took  on  his  own  responsibihty 
the  bold  step  of  intercepting  them,  and  calling  them  to  the 
work  of  helping  to  put  down  the  Mutiny  in  India.  The  dis- 
pute with  China  he  thought  could  well  afford  to  wait,  but 
with  the  Mutiny  it  must  be  now  or  never.  India  could  not 
wait  for  reinforcements  brought  all  the  way  from  England. 
Lord  Canning  knew  well  enough,  as  well  as  the  wildest  alarmist 
could  know,  that  the  rebel  flag  must  be  forced  to  fly  from 
some  field  before  that  help  came,  or  it  would  fly  over  the  dead 
bodies  of  those  who  then  represented  English  authority  in 
India.  He  had,  therefore,  no  hesitation  in  appealing  to  Lord 
Elgin,  the  Envoy  in  charge  of  the  Chinese  expedition,  to  stop 
the  troops  that  were  on  their  way  to  China,  and  lend  them  to 
the  service  of  India  at  such  a  need.  Lord  Elgin  had  the 
courage  and  the  wisdom  to  assent  to  the  appeal  at  once. 
Fortune,  too,  was  favourable  Lo  Canning  in  more  ways  than 
one.  The  Persian  war  was  of  short  duration.  Sir  James 
Outram  was  soon  victorious,  and  Outram,  therefore,  and  his 
gallant  companions,  Colonel  Jacob  and  Colonel  Havelock, 
were  able  to  lend  their  invahiable  services  to  the  Governor- 
General  of  India.  Most  important  for  Lord  Canning's  pur- 
poses was  the  manner  in  which  the  affairs  of  the  Punjaub 
were  managed  at  this  crisis.  The  Punjaub  was  under  the 
administration  of  one  of  the  ablest  public  servants  India  has 
ever  had — Sir  John,  afterwards  Lord  Lawrence.  John 
Lawrence  had  from  his  youth  been  in  the  Civil  Service  of 
the  East  India  Company  ;  and  when  Lord  Dalhousie  annexed 
the  Punjaub,  he  made  Lawrence  and  his  soldier-brother — the 
gallant  Sir  Henry  Lawrence — two  out  of  a  board  of  three  for 
the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  newly-acquired  pro- 
vince. Afterwards  Sir  John  Lawrence  was  named  the  Chief 
Commissioner  of  the  Punjaub,  and  by  the  promptitude  and 
energy  of  himself  and  his  subordinates,  the  province  was 
completely  saved  for  English  rule  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Mutiny.  Fortunately,  the  electric  telegraph  extended  from 
Calcutta  to  Lahore,  the  chief  city  of  the  Punjaub.  On  May 
11  the  news  of  the  outbreak  at  Meerut  was  brought  to  the 
authorities  at  Lahore.  As  it  happened,  Sir  John  Lawrence 
was  then  away  at  Piawiil  Pindee,  in  the  Upper  Punjaub  ;  but 
Mr.  Eobert  Montgomery,  the  Judicial  Commissioner  at  Lahore, 
was  invested  with  plenary  power,  and  he  showed  that  he  could 
use  it  to  advantage.  Meean  Meer  is  a  large  military  canton- 
ment five  or  six  miles  from  Lahore,  and  there  were  then  some 


i8o      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.     CH.  xiii. 

four  thousand  native  troops  there,  with  only  about  thirteen 
hundred  Europeans  ot  the  Queen's  and  the  Company's  service. 
There  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  While  the  Punjaub  held  firm 
it  was  like  a  barrier  raised  at  one  side  of  the  rebellious  move- 
ment, not  merely  preventing  it  from  going  any  farther  in  that 
direction,  but  keeping  it  pent  up  until  the  moment  came  when 
the  blow  from  the  other  direction  could  fall  upon  it.  The 
first  thing  to  be  done  to  strike  effectively  at  the  rebellion  was 
to  make  an  attack  on  Delhi ;  and  the  possession  of  the  Pun- 
jaub was  of  inestimable  advantage  to  the  authorities  for  that 
purpose.  There  was  no  actual  reason  to  assume  that  the 
oepoys  in  Meean  Meer  intended  to  join  the  rebellion.  There 
would  be  a  certain  danger  of  converting  them  into  rebels  if 
any  rash  movement  were  to  be  made  for  the  purpose  of  guard- 
ing against  treachery  on  their  part.  Either  way  was  a  serious 
responsibility,  a  momentous  risk.  The  authorities  soon  made 
up  their  minds.  Any  risk  would  be  better  than  that  of  leaving 
it  in  the  power  of  the  native  troops  to  join  the  rebellion.  A 
ball  and  supper  were  to  be  given  at  Lahore  that  night.  To 
avoid  creating  any  alarm  it  was  arranged  that  the  entertain- 
ments should  take  place.  During  the  dancing  and  feasting 
Mr.  Montgomery  held  a  council  of  the  leading  officials  of 
Lahore,  civil  and  military,  and  it  was  resolved  at  once  to  dis- 
arm the  native  troops.  A  parade  was  ordered  for  daybreak  at 
Meean  ]\Ieer ;  and  on  the  parade  ground  an  order  was  given 
ior  a  military  movement  which  brought  the  heads  of  four 
columns  of  the  native  troops  in  front  of  twelve  guns  charged 
with  grape,  the  artillerymen  with  their  port-fires  lighted,  and 
the  soldiers  of  one  of  the  Queen's  regiments  standing  behind 
with  loaded  muskets.  A  command  was  given  to  the  Sepoys 
.0  pile  arms.  They  had  immediate  death  before  them  if  tliey 
disobeyed.  They  stood  literally  at  the  cannon's  mouth.  They 
piled  their  arms,  which  were  borne  away  at  once  in  earts  by 
European  soldiers,  and  all  chances  of  a  rebellious  movement 
were  over  in  that  province,  and  the  Punjaub  was  saved. 
Something  of  the  same  kind  was  done  at  Mooltan,  in  the 
Lower  Punjaub,  later  on ;  and  the  province,  tluis  assured  to 
English  civil  and  military  authoi'ity,  became  a  basis  for  some 
of  the  most  imxportant  operations  by  which  the  Mutiny  was 
crushed,  and  the  sceptre  of  Lidia  restored  to  the  Queen. 

Within  little  more  than  a  fortnight  from  the  occupation  of 
Delhi  by  the  rebels,  the  British  forces  under  General  Anson, 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  were  advancing  on  that  city.     The 


CH.  xni.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY,  i8i 

commander  did  not  live  to  conduct  any  of  the  operations. 
He  died  of  cholera  almost  at  the  beginning  of  the  march. 
The  siege  of  Delhi  proved  long  and  difficult.  Another  general 
died,  another  had  to  give  up  his  command,  before  the  city 
was  recaptured.  It  was  justly  considered  by  Lord  Canning 
and  by  all  the  authorities  as  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
Delhi  should  be  taken  before  the  arrival  of  great  reinforce- 
ments from  home.  Meanwhile  the  rebellion  was  breaking 
out  at  new  points  almost  everywhere  in  these  northern  and 
north-western  regions.  On  May  30  the  Mutiny  declared  itself 
at  Luclmow.  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  was  governor  of  Oudli. 
He  endeavoured  to  drive  the  rebels  from  the  place,  but  the 
numbers  of  the  mutineers  were  overwhelming.  He  had  under 
his  command,  too,  a  force  partly  made  up  of  native  troops, 
and  some  of  these  deserted  him  in  the  battle.  He  had  to 
retreat  and  to  fortify  the  Eesidency  at  Lucknow,  and  remove 
all  the  Europeans,  men,  women,  and  children  thither,  and 
patiently  stand  a  siege.  Lawrence  himself  had  not  long  to 
endure  the  siege.  On  July  2  he  had  been  up  with  the  dawn, 
and  after  a  great  amount  of  work  he  lay  on  the  sofa,  not,  as 
it  has  been  well  said,  to  rest,  but  to  transact  business  in  a 
recumbent  position.  His  nephew  and  another  officer  were  with 
him.  Suddenly  a  great  crash  was  heard,  and  the  room  was 
filled  with  smoke  and  dust.  One  of  his  companions  was  flung 
to  the  ground.  A  shell  had  burst.  When  there  was  silence 
the  officer  who  had  been  flung  down  called  out,  '  Sir  Henry, 
are  you  hurt  ?  '  'I  am  killed,'  was  the  answer  that  came 
faintly  but  firmly  from  Sir  Henry  Lawrence's  lips.  The  shell 
had  wounded  him  in  the  thigli  so  fearfully  as  to  leave  surgery 
no  chance  of  doing  anything  for  his  relief.  On  the  morning 
of  July  4  he  died  calmly  and  in  perfect  submission  to  the  will  of 
Providence.  He  had  mr^de  all  possible  arrangements  for  his 
successor,  and  for  the  work  to  be  done.  He  desired  that  on 
his  tomb  should  be  engraven  merely  the  words,  '  Here  lies 
Henry  Lawrence,  who  tried  to  do  his  duty.'  The  epitaph  was 
a  simple  truthful  summing  up  of  a  simple  truthful  career.  The 
man,  however,  was  greater  than  the  career.  Lawrence  had 
not  opportunity  to  show  in  actual  result  the  greatness  of  spirit 
that  was  in  him.  The  immense  influence  he  exercised  over  all 
who  came  within  his  reach  bears  testimony  to  his  strength  and 
nobleness  of  character  better  than  any  of  the  mere  successes 
which  his  biographer  can  record.  He  was  full  of  sympathy. 
His  soul  was  alive  to  the  noblest  and  purest  aspirations.     '  It 


182      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES,      ch.  xiii. 

is  the  due  admixture  of  romance  and  reality,'  he  was  himself 
accustomed  to  say,  *  that  best  carries  a  man  through  life.'  No 
professional  teacher  or  philosopher  ever  spoke  a  truer  sentence. 
As  one  of  his  many  admirers  says  of  him — '  what  he  said  and 
wrote,  he  did,  or  rather  he  was.'  Let  the  bitterest  enemy  of 
England  write  the  history  of  her  rule  in  India,  and  set  down 
as  against  her  every  wrong  that  was  done  in  her  name,  from 
those  which  Burke  denounced  to  those  which  the  Madras 
Commission  exposed,  he  will  have  to  say  that  men,  many  men, 
like  Henry  Lawrence,  lived  and  died  devoted  to  the  cause  of 
that  rule,  and  the  world  will  take  account  of  the  admission. 

During  the  later  days  of  Sir  Henry  Lawrence's  life  it  had 
another  trouble  added  to  it  by  the  appeals  which  were  made  to 
him  from  Cawnpore  for  a  help  which  he  could  not  give.  The 
city  of  Cawnpore  stands  in  the  Doab,  a  peninsula  between  the 
Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  and  is  built  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Ganges,  there  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad  in  the  dry 
season,  and  more  than  a  mile  across  when  swelled  by  the  rains. 
Li  1801,  the  territory  lapsed  into  the  possession  of  the  Company. 
From  that  time  it  took  rank  as  one  of  our  first-class  military 
stations.  The  city  commanded  the  bridge  over  which  passed 
the  high  road  to  Lucknow,  the  capital  of  our  new  province. 
The  distance  from  Cawnpore  to  Lucknow  is  about  fifty  miles 
as  the  bird  flies.  At  the  time  when  the  Mutiny  broke  out 
in  Meerut  there  were  some  three  thousand  native  soldiers 
in  Cawnpore,  consisting  of  two  regiments  of  infantry,  one 
of  cavalry,  and  a  company  of  artillerymen.  There  were 
about  three  hundred  officers  and  soldiers  of  English  birth. 
The  European  or  Eurasian  population,  including  women 
and  children,  numbered  about  one  thousand.  These  con- 
sisted of  the  officials,  the  railway  people,  some  mercliants 
and  shopkeepers  and  their  families.  The  native  town  had 
about  sixty  thousand  inhabitants.  The  garrison  was  under 
the  command  of  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler,  a  man  of  some  seventy- 
five  years  of  age,  among  the  oldest  of  an  old  school  of 
Bengal  officers.  The  revolt  was  looked  for  at  Cawnpore  from 
the  moment  when  the  news  came  of  the  rising  at  Meerut ; 
and  it  was  not  long  expected  before  it  came.  Sir  Hugh 
Wheeler  applied  to  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  for  help ;  Lawrence 
of  course  could  not  spare  a  man.  Then  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler 
remembered  that  he  had  a  neighbour  whom  he  believed  to  be 
friendly,  despite  of  very  recent  warnings  from  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence  and  others  to  the  contrary.     He  called  this  neigh- 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  183 

bour  to  his  assistance,  and  his  invitation  was  promptly  answered. 
Tlie  Nana  Sahib  came  with  two  guns  and  some  three  hmidred 
men  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  English  commander. 

The  Nana  Sahib  resided  at  Bithoor,  a  small  town  twelve 
miles  up  the  river  from  Cawnpore.  He  represented  a  griev- 
ance. Bajee  Eao,  Peishwa  of  Poonah,  was  the  last  prince  of 
one  of  the  great  Mahratta  dynasties.  The  East  India  Com- 
pany believed  him  guilty  of  treachery  against  them,  of  bad 
government  of  his  dominions,  and  so  forth  ;  and  they  found 
a  reason  for  dethroning  him.  He  was  assigned,  however, 
a  residence  in  Bithoor,  and  a  large  pension.  He  had  no  chil- 
dren, and  he  adopted  as  his  heir  Secreek  Dhoondoo  Punth, 
the  man  who  will  be  known  to  all  time  by  the  infamous  name 
of  Nana  Sahib.  According  to  Hindoo  belief  it  is  needful  for 
a  man's  eternal  welfare  that  he  leave  a  son  behind  him  to 
perform  duly  his  funeral  rites  ;  and  the  adoption  of  a  son 
is  recognised  as  in  every  sense  conferring  on  the  adopted  all 
the  rights  that  a  child  of  the  blood  could  have.  Bajee  died 
in  1851,  and  Nana  Sahib  claimed  to  succeed  to  all  his  posses- 
sions. LordDalhousie  had  shown  in  many  instances  a  strangely 
unwise  disregard  of  the  principle  of  adoption.  The  claim  of  the 
Nana  to  the  pension  was  disallowed.  Nana  Sahib  sent  a  con- 
fidential agent  to  London  to  push  his  claim  there.  This 
man  was  a  clever  and  handsome  young  Mohammedan  who  had 
at  one  time  been  a  servant  in  an  Anglo-Indian  family,  and  had 
picked  up  a  knowledge  of  French  and  English.  His  name 
was  Azimoolah  Khan.  This  emissary  visited  London  in  1854, 
and  became  a  lion  of  the  fashionable  season.  He  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  winning  over  the  Government  to  take  any  notice  of  the 
claims  of  his  master,  but  being  very  handsome  and  of  sleek 
and  alluring  manners,  he  became  a  favourite  in  the  drawing- 
rooms  of  the  metropolis,  and  was  under  the  impression  that  an 
unlimited  number  of  Englishwomen  of  rank  were  dying  with 
love  for  him.  On  his  way  home  he  visited  Constantinople  and 
the  Crimea.  It  was  then  a  dark  hour  for  the  fortunes  of  Ensr- 
land  in  the  Crimea,  and  Azimoolah  Khan  swallowed  with  glad 
and  greedy  ear  all  the  alarmist  rumours  that  were  afloat  in 
Stamboul  about  the  decay  of  England's  strength  and  the  im- 
pending domination  of  Russian  power  over  Europe  and  Asia. 
The  Western  visit  of  this  man  was  not  an  event  without 
important  consequences.  He  doubtless  reported  to  his  master 
that  the  strength  of  England  w^as  on  the  wane ;  and  while 
Btimulating  his  hatred  and  revenge,  stimulated  also  his  confi- 


i84      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xill. 

dence  in  the  chances  of  an  effort  to  gratify  both.  With  Azi- 
moolah  Khan's  mission  and  its  results  ended  the  hopes  of  Nana 
Sahib  for  the  success  of  his  claims,  and  began,  we  may  pre- 
sume, his  resolve  to  be  revenged. 

Nana  Sahib,  although  his  claim  on  the  English  Govern- 
ment was  not  allowed,  was  still  rich.  He  had  the  large  pri- 
vate property  of  the  man  who  had  adopted  him,  and  he  had 
the  residence  at  Bithoor.  He  kept  up  a  sort  of  princely  state. 
He  never  visited  Cawnpore  ;  the  reason  being,  it  is  believed, 
that  he  would  not  have  been  received  there  with  princely 
honours.  But  he  was  especially  lavish  of  his  attentions  to 
English  visitors,  and  his  invitations  went  far  and  wide  among 
the  military  and  civil  servants  of  the  Crown  and  the  Com- 
pany. He  cultivated  the  society  of  English  men  and  women ; 
he  showered  his  civilities  upon  them.  He  did  not  speak  or 
even  understand  English,  but  he  took  a  great  interest  in 
English  history,  customs,  and  literature.  He  was  luxurious 
in  the  most  thoroughly  Oriental  fashion  ;  and  Oriental  luxury 
implies  a  great  deal  more  than  any  experience  of  Western 
luxury  would  suggest.  At  the  time  with  which  we  are  dealing 
he  was  only  about  thirty-six  years  of  age,  but  he  was  prema- 
turely heavy  and  fat,  and  seemed  to  be  as  incapable  of  active 
exertion  as  of  unkindly  feeling.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  all  this  time  he  was  a  dissembler  of  more  than  common 
Eastern  dissimulation.  It  appears  almost  certain  that  while 
he  was  lavishing  his  courtesies  and  kindnesses  upon  English- 
men without  discrimination,  his  heart  was  burning  with  a 
hatred  to  the  whole  British  race.  A  sense  of  his  wrongs  had 
eaten  him  up.  It  is  a  painful  thing  to  say,  but  it  is  necessary 
to  the  truth  of  this  history,  that  his  wrongs  were  genuine. 
He  had  been  treated  with  injustice.  According  to  all  the 
recognised  usages  of  his  race  and  his  religion,  he  had  a  claim 
indefeasible  in  justice  to  the  succession  which  had  been 
unfairly  and  unwisely  denied  to  him.  It  was  to  Nana  Sahib, 
then,  that  poor  old  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler  in  the  hour  of  his 
distress  applied  for  assistance.  Most  gladly,  we  can  well 
believe,  did  the  Nana  come.  He  established  himself  in 
Cawnpore  with  his  guns  and  his  soldiers.  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler 
had  taken  refuge,  when  the  Mutiny  broke  out,  in  an  old 
military  hospital  with  mud  walls,  scarcely  four  feet  high, 
hastily  thrown  up  around  it,  and  a  few  guns  of  various  calibre 
placed  in  position  on  the  so-called  entrenchments.  Within 
these  almost  shadowy  and  certainly  crumbling  entrenchments 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  \%% 

•were  gathered  about  a  thousand  persons,  of  whom  465  were 
men  of  every  age  and  profession.  The  married  women  and 
grown  daughters  were  about  280 ;  the  children  about  the 
same  number.  Of  the  men  there  were  probably  400  who 
could  fight. 

As  soon  as  Nana  Sahib's  presence  became  known  in 
Cawnpore  he  was  surrounded  by  the  mutineers,  who  insisted 
that  he  must  make  common  cause  with  them  and  become  one 
of  their  leaders.  He  put  himself  at  their  disposal.  He  gave 
notice  to  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler  that  if  the  entrenchments  were 
not  surrendered,  they  would  be  instantly  attacked.  They  were 
attacked.  A  general  assault  was  made  upon  the  miserable  mud 
walls  on  June  12,  but  the  resistance  was  heroic  and  the  assault 
failed.  It  was  after  that  assault  that  the  garrison  succeeded 
in  sending  a  message  to  Sir  Henry  Lawrence  at  Lucknow, 
craving  for  the  aid  which  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  him 
to  give.  From  that  time  the  fire  of  the  mutineer  army  on  the 
English  entrenchments  never  ceased.  Whenever  a  regular 
attack  was  made  the  assailants  mvariably  came  to  grief.  The 
little  garrison,  thinning  in  numbers  every  day  and  almost 
every  hour,  held  out  with  splendid  obstinacy,  and  always  sent 
those  who  assailed  it  scampering  back — except  of  course  for 
such  assailants  as  perforce  kept  their  ground  by  the  persuasion 
of  the  English  bullets.  The  little  population  of  women  and 
children  behind  the  entrenchments  had  no  roof  to  shelter 
them  from  the  fierce  Indian  sun.  They  cowered  under  the 
scanty  shadow  of  the  low  walls  often  at  the  imminent  peril 
of  the  unceasing  Sepoy  bullets.  The  only  water  for  their 
drinking  was  to  be  had  from  a  single  well,  at  which  the  guns 
of  the  assailants  w^ere  unceasingly  levelled.  To  go  to  the 
well  and  draw  water  became  the  task  of  self-sacrificing  heroes, 
who  might  with  better  chances  of  safety  have  led  a  forlorn 
hope.  The  water  which  the  fainting  women  and  children 
drank  might  have  seemed  to  be  reddened  by  blood  ;  for  only  at 
the  price  of  blood  was  it  ever  obtained.  It  may  seem  a  trivial 
detail,  but  it  willcomit  for  much  in  a  history  of  the  sufferings 
of  delicately  nurtured  English  women,  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  siege  of  the  Cawnpore  entrenchments  to  its  tragic 
end,  there  was  not  one  spongeful  of  water  to  be  had  for  the 
purposes  of  personal  cleanliness.  The  inmates  of  that  ghastly 
garrison  were  dying  like  flies.  One  does  not  know  which  to 
call  the  greater  ;  the  suffering  of  the  women  or  the  bravery  of 
the  men. 


l86      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xiii. 

A  conviction  began  to  spread  among  the  mutineers  that 
it  was  of  no  use  attempting  to  conquer  these  terrible  British 
sahibs ;  that  so  long  as  one  of  them  was  alive  he  would  be  as 
formidable  as  a  wild  beast  in  its  lair.  The  Sepoys  became 
unwilling  to  come  too  near  the  low  crumbling  walls  of  the 
entrenchment.  Those  walls  might  have  been  leaped  over  as 
easily  as  that  of  Eomulus  ;  but  of  what  avail  to  know  that, 
when  from  behind  them  always  came  the  fatal  fire  of  the 
Englishmen  ?  It  was  no  longer  easy  to  get  the  mutineers  to 
attempt  anything  like  an  assault.  The  English  themselves 
began  to  show  a  perplexing  kind  of  aggressive  enterprise,  and 
took  to  making  little  sallies  in  small  numbers  indeed,  but  with 
astonishing  efiect,  on  any  bodies  of  Sepoys  who  happened  to 
be  anywhere  near.  Utterly,  overwhelmingly,  preposterously 
outnumbered  as  the  Englishmen  were,  there  were  moments 
when  it  began  to  seem  almost  possible  that  they  might  actually 
keep  back  their  assailants  until  some  English  army  could  come 
to  their  assistance  and  take  a  terrible  vengeance  upon  Cawn- 
pore.  Nana  Sahib  began  to  find  that  he  could  not  take  by 
assault  those  wretched  entrenchments  ;  and  he  could  not  wait 
to  starve  the  garrison  out.  He  therefore  resolved  to  treat  with 
the  English.  The  terms,  it  is  believed,  were  arranged  by  the 
advice  and  assistance  of  Tantia  Topee,  his  lieutenant,  and 
Azimoolah  Khan,  the  favourite  of  Enghsh  drawing-rooms. 
An  offer  was  sent  to  the  entrenchments,  the  terms  of  which 
are  worthy  of  notice.  'All  those,'  it  said,  'who  are  in  no 
way  connected  with  the  acts  of  Lord  Dalhousie,  and  who  are 
willing  to  lay  down  their  arms,  shall  receive  a  safe  passage  to 
Allahabad.'  The  terms  had  to  be  accepted.  There  was  nothing 
else  to  be  done.  The  English  people  were  promised,  during 
the  course  of  the  negotiations,  sufficient  supplies  of  food  and 
boats  to  carry  them  to  Allahabad,  which  was  now  once  more 
in  the  possession  of  England.  The  relief  was  unspeakable 
for  the  survivors  of  that  weary  defence.  The  women,  the 
children,  the  wounded,  the  sick,  the  dying,  welcomed  any 
terms  of  release.  Not  the  faintest  suspicion  crossed  any 
mind  of  the  treachery  that  was  awaiting  them.  How,  in- 
deed, could  there  be  any  such  suspicion  ?  Not  for  years  and 
years  had  even  Oriental  warfare  given  example  of  such 
practice  as  that  which  Nana  Sahib  and  the  graceful  and 
civilised  Azimoolah  Khan  had  now  in  preparation. 

The  time  for  the  evacuation  of  the  garrison  came.  The 
boats  were  in  readiness  on  the  Ganges.     The  long  procession 


CH.  xiii.  THE   INDIAN  MUTINY.  187 

of  men,  women,  and  children  passed  slowly  down ;  very 
slowly  in  some  instances,  because  of  the  number  of  sick  and 
wounded  by  which  its  progress  was  encumbered.  Some  of 
the  chief  among  the  Nana's  counsellors  took  their  stand  in  a 
little  temple  on  the  margin  of  the  river,  to  superintend  the 
embarkation  and  the  work  that  was  to  follow  it.  Nana  Sahib 
himself  was  not  there.  It  is  understood  that  he  purposely 
kept  away ;  he  preferred  to  hear  of  the  deed  when  it  was 
done.  His  faithful  lieutenant,  Tantia  Topee,  had  given 
orders,  it  seems,  that  when  a  trumpet  sounded,  some  work, 
for  which  he  had  arranged,  should  begin.  The  wounded  and 
the  women  were  got  into  the  boats  in  the  first  instance.  The 
officers  and  men  were  scrambling  in  afterwards.  Suddenly 
the  blast  of  a  trumpet  was  heard.  The  boats  were  of  the 
kind  common  on  the  rivers  of  India,  covered  with  roofs  of 
straw,  and  looking,  as  some  accounts  describe  them,  not 
unlike  floating  haystacks.  The  moment  the  bugle  sounded, 
the  straw  of  the  boat-roofs  blazed  up,  and  the  native  rowers 
began  to  make  precipitately  for  the  shore.  They  had  set  fire 
to  the  thatch,  and  were  now  escaping  from  the  flames  they 
had  purposely  lighted  up.  At  the  same  moment  there  came 
from  both  shores  of  the  river  thick  showers  of  grapeshot  and 
musketry.  The  banks  of  the  Ganges  seemed  in  an  instant 
alive  with  shot ;  a  very  rain  of  bullets  poured  in  upon  the 
devoted  inmates  of  the  boats.  To  add  to  the  horrors  of  the 
moment,  if,  indeed,  it  needed  any  addition,  nearly  all  the 
boats  stuck  fast  in  mudbanks,  and  the  occupants  became  fixed 
targets  for  the  fire  of  their  enemies.  Only  three  of  the  boats 
floated.  Two  of  these  drifted  to  the  Oudli  shore,  and  those 
on  board  them  were  killed  at  once.  The  third  floated  farther 
along  with  the  stream,  reserved  for  further  adventures  and 
horrors  The  firing  ceased  when  Tantia  Topee  and  his  con- 
federates thought  that  enough  had  been  done  ;  and  the  women 
and  children  who  were  still  alive  were  brought  ashore  and 
carried  in  forlorn  procession  back  again  through  the  town 
where  they  had  suffered  so  much,  and  which  they  had  hoped 
that  they  were  leaving  for  ever.  They  were  about  125  in 
number,  women  and  children.  Some  of  them  were  wounded. 
There  were  a  fev/  well-disposed  natives  who  saw  them  and 
were  sorry  for  them  ;  who  had  perhaps  served  them,  and  ex- 
perienced their  kindness  in  other  days,  and  who  now  had 
Bome  grateful  memory  of  it,  which  they  dared  not  express  by 
any  open  profession  of  sympathy.     Certain  of  these  after- 


i88      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xiii. 

wards  described  the  English  ladies  as  they  saw  them  pass. 
They  were  bedraggled  and  dishevelled,  these  poor  English 
women ;  their  clothes  were  in  tatters ;  some  of  them  were 
wounded,  and  the  blood  was  trickling  from  their  feet  and  legs. 
They  were  carried  to  a  place  called  the  Savada  House,  a  large 
building,  once  a  charitable  institution  bearing  the  name  of 
Salvador,  which  had  been  softened  into  Savada  by  Asiatic  pro- 
nunciation. On  board  the  one  boat  which  had  floated  with 
the  stream  were  more  than  a  hundred  persons.  The  boat  was 
attacked  by  a  constant  fire  from  both  banks  as  it  drifted  along. 
At  length  a  party  of  some  twelve  men,  or  thereabouts,  landed 
with  the  bold  object  of  attacking  their  assailants  and  driving 
them  back.  In  their  absence  the  boat  was  captured  by  some 
of  the  rebel  gangs,  and  the  women  and  the  wounded  were 
brought  back  to  Cawnpore.  Some  sixty  men,  twenty-five 
women,  and  four  children  were  thus  recaptured.  The  men 
were  immediately  shot.  It  may  be  said  at  once,  that  of  the 
gallant  little  party  who  went  ashore  to  attack  the  enemy,  hand 
to  hand,  four  finally  escaped,  after  adventures  so  perilous  and 
BO  extraordinary  that  a  professional  story-teller  would  hardly 
venture  to  make  them  part  of  a  fictitious  narrative. 

The  Nana  had  now  a  considerable  number  of  English 
women  in  his  hands.  They  were  removed,  after  a  while, 
from  their  first  prison-house  to  a  small  building  north  of  the 
canal,  and  between  the  native  city  and  the  Ganges.  Here 
they  were  cooped  up  in  the  closest  manner,  except  when  some 
of  them  were  taken  out  in  the  evening  and  set  to  the  work  of 
grinding  corn  for  the  use  of  their  captors.  Cholera  and 
dysentery  set  in  among  these  unhappy  sufferers,  and  some 
eighteen  women  and  seven  children  died.  Let  it  be  said  for 
the  credit  of  womanhood,  that  the  royal  widows,  the  relicts  of 
the  Nana's  father  by  adoption,  made  many  efforts  to  protect 
the  captive  Englishwomen,  and  even  declared  that  they  would 
throw  themselves  and  their  children  from  the  palace  windows 
if  any  harm  were  done  to  the  prisoners.  We  have  only  to 
repeat  here,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  no  indignities,  other  than 
that  of  the  compulsory  corn-grinding,  were  put  upon  the 
English  ladies.  They  were  doomed,  one  and  all,  to  suffer 
death,  but  they  were  not,  as  at  one  time  was  believed  in 
England,  made  to  long  for  death  as  an  escape  from  shame. 
Meanwhile  the  prospects  of  the  Nana  and  his  rebellion  were 
growing  darker  and  darker.  He  must  have  begun  to  know 
by  this  time  that  he  had  no  chance  of  establishing  himself 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  189 

as  a  ruler  anywhere  in  India.  The  English  had  not  been 
swept  out  of  the  country  with  a  rush.  The  first  flood  of  the 
Mutiny  had  broken  on  their  defences,  and  already  the  tide 
was  falling.  The  Nana  well  knew  it  never  would  rise  again 
to  the  same  height  in  his  day.  The  English  were  coming  on. 
Neill  had  recaptured  Allahabad,  and  cleared  the  country  all 
round  it  of  any  traces  of  rebellion.  Havelock  was  now 
moving  forward  from  Allahabad  towards  Cawnpore,  with  six 
cannon  and  about  a  thousand  English  soldiers.  Very  small 
in  point  of  numbers  was  that  force  when  compared  with  that 
which  Nana  Sahib  could  even  still  rally  romid  him  ;  but  no 
one  in  India  now  knew  better  than  Nana  Sahib  what  extra- 
ordinary odds  the  English  could  afford  to  give  with  the 
certainty  of  winning.  Havelock' s  march  was  a  series  of 
victories,  although  he  was  often  in  such  difficulties  that  the 
slightest  display  of  real  generalship  or  even  soldiership  on 
the  part  of  his  opponents  might  have  stopped  his  advance. 
He  had  one  encounter  with  the  lieutenant  of  the  Nana,  who 
had  under  his  command  nearly  four  thousand  men  and  twelve 
guns,  and  Havelock  won  a  complete  victory  in  about  ten 
minutes.  He  defeated  in  the  same  off-hand  way  various  other 
chiefs  of  the  Mutiny.  He  was  almost  at  the  gates  of  Cawnpore. 
Then  it  appears  to  have  occurred  to  the  Nana,  or  to  have 
been  suggested  to  him,  that  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  have 
his  English  captives  recaptured  by  the  enemy,  their  country- 
men. It  may  be  that  in  the  utter  failure  of  all  his  plans  and 
hopes  he  was  anxious  to  secure  some  satisfaction,  to  satiate 
his  hatred  in  some  way.  It  was  intimated  to  the  prisoners 
that  they  were  to  die.  Among  them  were  three  or  four  men. 
These  were  called  out  and  shot.  Then  some  Sepoys  were 
sent  to  the  house  where  the  women  still  were,  and  ordered  to 
fire  volleys  through  the  windows.  This  they  did,  but 
apparently  without  doing  much  harm.  Some  persons  are  of 
opinion,  from  such  evidence  as  can  be  got,  that  the  men 
purposely  fired  high  above  the  level  of  the  floor,  to  avoid 
killing  any  of  the  women  and  children.  In  the  evening  five 
men,  two  Hindoo  peasants,  two  Mohammedan  butchers,  and 
one  Mohammedan  wearing  the  red  uniform  of  the  Nana's  body- 
guard, were  sent  up  to  the  house,  and  entered  it.  Incessant 
shrieks  were  heard  to  come  from  that  fearful  house.  The 
Mohammedan  soldier  came  out  to  the  door  holding  in  his  hand 
a  sword-hilt  from  which  the  blade  had  been  broken  off,  and 
be  exchanged  this  now  useless  instrument  for  a  weapon  in 


I90      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      ch.  xiil. 

proper  condition.  Not  once  but  twice  this  performance  took 
place.  Evidently  the  task  imposed  on  these  men  was  hard 
work  for  the  sword-blades.  After  a  while  the  five  men  came 
out  of  the  now  quiet  house  and  locked  the  doors  behind  them. 
During  that  time  they  had  killed  nearly  all  the  Englishwomen 
and  children.  They  had  slaughtered  them  like  beasts  in  the 
Bhambles.  In  the  morning  the  five  men  came  again  with 
several  attendants  to  clear  out  the  house  of  the  captives. 
Their  task  was  to  tumble  all  the  bodies  into  a  dry  well  beyond 
Bome  trees  that  grew  near.  Any  of  the  bodies  that  had 
clothes  worth  taking  were  carefully  stripped  before  being  con^ 
signed  to  this  open  grave.  When  Cawnpore  was  afterwards 
taken  by  the  English  those  who  had  to  look  down  into  that 
well  saw  a  sight  the  like  of  which  no  man  in  modern  days 
had  ever  seen  elsewhere.  No  attempt  shall  be  made  to 
describe  it  here.  When  the  house  of  the  massacre  itself  was 
entered,  its  floors  and  its  walls  told  with  terrible  plainness  of 
the  scene  they  had  witness  jd.  The  plaster  of  the  walls  was  . 
scored  and  seamed  with  sword-slashes  low  down  and  in  the 
corners,  as  if  the  poor  women  had  crouched  down  in  their 
mortal  fright  with  some  wild  hope  of  escaping  the  blows. 
The  floor  was  strewn  with  scraps  of  dresses,  women's  faded 
ragged  finery,  frilling,  underclothing,  broken  combs,  shoes, 
and  tresses  of  hair.  There  were  some  small  and  neatly 
severed  curls  of  hair  too  which  had  fallen  on  the  ground,  but 
evidently  had  never  been  cut  off  by  the  rude  weapon  of  a 
professional  butcher.  These  doubtless  were  keepsakes  that 
had  been  treasured  to  the  last,  parted  with  only  when  life  and 
all  were  going.  One  or  two  scraps  of  paper  were  found  which 
recorded  deaths  and  such  like  interruptions  of  the  monotony 
of  imprisonment ;  but  nothing  more.  The  well  of  horrors 
has  since  been  filled  up,  and  a  memorial  chapel  surrounded 
by  a  garden  built  upon  the  spot. 

Something,  however,  has  still  to  be  told  of  the  Nana  and 
his  fortunes.  He  made  one  last  stand  against  the  victorious 
English  in  front  of  Cawnpore,  and  was  completely  defeated. 
He  galloped  into  the  city  on  a  bleeding  and  exhausted  horse  ; 
he  fled  thence  to  Bithoor,  his  residence.  He  had  just  time 
left,  it  is  said,  to  order  the  murder  of  a  separate  captive,  a 
woman  who  had  previously  been  overlooked  or  purposely  left 
behind.  Then  he  took  flight  in  the  direction  of  the  Ncpaulese 
marches ;  and  he  soon  disappears  from  history.  Nothing  of 
liia  fate  was  ever  known.     Many  years  afterwards  England 


cir.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY,  191 

and  India  were  treated  to  a  momentary  sensation  by  a  story 
of  the  capture  of  Nana  Sahib.  But  the  man  who  was  arrested 
proved  to  be  an  entirely  different  person ;  and  indeed  from  the 
moment  of  his  arrest  few  beHeved  him  to  be  the  long-lost 
murderer  of  the  English  women.  In  days  more  superstitious 
than  our  own,  popular  faith  would  have  found  an  easy  ex- 
planation of  the  mystery  which  surrounded  the  close  of  Nana 
Sahib's  career.  He  had  done,  it  would  have  been  said,  the 
work  of  a  fiend  ;  and  he  had  disappeared  as  a  fiend  would  do 
when  his  task  was  accomplished. 

The  capture  of  Delhi  was  effected  on  September  20.  Bri- 
gadier-General Nicholson  led  the  storming  columns,  and  paid 
for  his  bravery  and  success  the  price  of  a  gallant  life.  Nicholson 
was  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  capable  officers  whom  the  war 
produced.  It  is  worthy  of  record  as  an  evidence  of  the  temper 
aroused  even  in  men  from  whom  better  things  might  have  been 
expected,  that  Nicholson  strongly  urged  the  passing  of  a  law 
to  authorise  flaying  alive,  impalement,  or  burning  of  the  mur- 
derers of  the  women  and  children  in  Delhi.  He  urged  this 
view  again  and  again,  and  deliberately  argued  it  on  grounds 
alike  of  policy  and  principle.  The  fact  is  recorded  here  not 
in  mere  disparagement  of  a  brave  soldier,  but  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  manner  in  which  the  old  elementary  passions  of 
man's  untamed  condition  can  return  upon  him  in  his  pnde 
of  civilisation  and  culture,  and  make  him  their  slave  again. 
The  taking  of  Delhi  was  followed  by  an  act  of  unpardonable 
bloodshed.  A  young  officer,  Hodson,  the  leader  of  the  little 
force  known  as  Hodson's  Horse,  was  acting  as  chief  of  the  In- 
telligence Department.  He  was  especially  distinguished  by  an 
extraordinary  blending  of  cool,  calculating  craft  and  reckless 
daring.  By  the  help  of  native  spies  Hodson  discovered  that 
when  Delhi  was  taken  the  king  and  his  family  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  tomb  of  the  Emperor  Hoomayoon,  a  structure  which, 
with  the  buildings  surrounding  and  belonging  to  it,  constituted 
a  sort  of  suburb  in  itself.  Hodson  went  boldly  to  this  place 
with  a  few  of  his  troopers  and  captured  the  three  royal  princes 
of  Delhi.  He  tried  them  as  rebels  taken  red-handed,  and  bor- 
rowing a  carbine  from  one  of  his  troopers,  he  shot  them  dead 
with  his  own  hand.  Their  corpses,  half -naked,  were  exposed 
for  some  days  at  one  of  the  gates  of  Delhi.  Hodson  was  tailed 
not  long  after  ;  we  might  well  wish  to  be  free  to  allow  him  to 
rest  without  censure  in  his  untimely  grave.  He  was  a  brave 
and  clever  soldier,  but  one  who  unfortunately  allowed  a  fierce 


192      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.        CH.  XIII. 

temper  to  over-rule  the  better  instincts  of  his  nature  and  the 
guidance  of  a  cool  judgment. 

General  Havelock  made  his  vvay  to  the  relief  of  Jjuclmow. 
Sir  James  Outram,  who  had  returned  from  Persia,  had  been  sent 
to  Oudh  with  complete  civil  and  military  authority.  He  would 
in  the  natural  order  of  things  have  superseded  Havelock,  but 
he  refused  to  rob  a  brave  and  successful  comrade  of  the  fruits 
of  his  toil  and  peril,  and  he  accompanied  Havelock  as  a  volun- 
teer. Havelock  was  enabled  to  continue  his  victorious  march, 
and  on  September  25  he  was  able  to  relieve  the  besieged  English 
at  Lucknow.  His  coming,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  saved  the 
women  and  children  from  such  a  massacre  as  that  of  Cawnpore  ; 
but  Havelock  had  not  the  force  that  might  have  driven  the  rebels 
out  of  the  field,  and  if  England  had  not  been  prepared  to  make 
greater  efforts  for  the  rescue  of  her  imperilled  people,  it  is  but 
too  probable  that  the  troops  whom  Havelock  brought  to  the  relief 
of  Lucknow  would  only  have  swelled  the  number  of  the  victims. 
But  in  the  meantime  the  stout  soldier,  Sir  Colin  Campbell, 
whom  we  have  already  heard  of  in  the  Crimean  campaign,  had 
been  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Indian  forces,  and 
had  arrived  in  India.  He  set  out  for  Lucknow.  He  had  under 
his  command  only  some  5,000  men,  a  force  miserably  inferior 
in  number  to  that  of  the  enemy  ;  but  in  those  days  an  English 
officer  thought  himself  in  good  condition  to  attack  if  the  foe 
did  not  outnumber  him  by  more  than  four  or  five  to  one.  A 
series  of  actions  was  fought  by  Sir  Colin  Campbell  and  his  little 
force  attacking  the  enemy  on  one  side,  who  were  attacked  at  the 
same  time  by  the  besieged  garrison  of  the  residency.  On  the 
morning  of  November  17,  by  the  combined  efforts  of  both  forces, 
the  enemy  was  dislodged.  Sir  Colin  Campbell  resolved,  however, 
that  the  residency  must  be  evacuated  ;  and  accordingly  on  the 
lOtli  heavy  batteries  were  opened  against  the  enemy's  position, 
as  if  for  the  purpose  of  assault,  and  under  cover  of  this  ope- 
ration the  women,  the  sick,  and  the  wounded  were  quietly  re- 
moved to  the  Dilkoosha,  a  small  palace  in  a  park  about  five 
miles  from  the  residency,  which  had  been  captured  by  Sir 
Colin  Campbell  on  his  way  to  attack  the  city.  By  midnight 
of  the  22nd  the  whole  garrison,  without  the  loss  of  a  single 
man,  had  left  the  residency.  Two  or  three  days  more  saw  the 
troops  established  at  Alumbagh,  some  four  miles  from  the  resi- 
dency, in  anotlier  direction  from  that  of  the  Dilkoosha. 

Alumbagh  is  an  isolated  cluster  of  buildings,  with  grounds 
and  enclosure  to  the  south  of  Lucknow.    The  name  of  this  place 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN"  MUTINY.  193 

is  memorable  for  ever  in  the  history  of  the  war.  It  was  there 
that  Havelock  closed  his  glorious  career.  He  was  attacked 
•with  dysentery,  and  died  on  November  24.  The  Queen  created 
him  a  baronet,  or  rather  affixed  that  honour  to  his  name  on 
the  27th  of  the  same  month,  not  knowing  then  that  the  soldier's 
time  for  struggle  and  for  honour  was  over.  The  title  was 
transferred  to  his  son,  the  present  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  who 
had  fought  gallantly  under  his  father's  eyes.  The  fame  of 
Havelock's  exploits  reached  England  only  a  little  in  advance 
of  the  news  of  his  death.  So  many  brilliant  deeds  had  seldom 
in  the  history  of  our  wars  been  crowded  into  days  so  few.  All 
the  fame  of  that  glorious  career  was  the  work  of  some  strenuous 
splendid  weeks.  Havelock' s  promotion  had  been  slow.  He 
had  not  much  for  which  to  thank  the  favour  of  his  superiors. 
No  family  influence,  no  powerful  patrons  or  friends  had  made 
his  slow  progress  more  easy.  He  was  more  than  sixty  when 
the  mutiny  broke  out.  He  was  born  in  April  1795  ;  he  was 
educated  at  the  Charterhouse,  London,  where  his  grave,  stu- 
dious ways  procured  for  him  the  niclaiame  of  '  Old  Phlos  ' — the 
schoolboy's  '  short '  for  '  old  philosopher.'  He  went  out  to 
India  in  1823,  and  served  in  the  Burmese  war  of  1824,  and 
the  Sikh  war  of  1845.  He  was  a  man  of  grave  and  earnest 
character,  a  Baptist  by  religion,  and  strongly  penetrated  with 
a  conviction  that  the  religious  spirit  ought  to  pervade  and 
inform  all  the  duties  of  military  as  well  as  civil  life.  By  his 
earnestness  and  his  example  he  succeeded  in  animating  those 
whom  he  led  with  similar  feelings  ;  and  '  Havelock' s  saints  ' 
were  well  known  through  India  by  this  distinctive  appropriate 
title.  '  Havelock' s  saints '  showed,  whenever  they  had  an 
opportunity,  that  they  could  fight  as  desperately  as  the  most 
reckless  sinners  ;  and  their  commander  found  the  fame  flung 
in  his  w^ay,  across  the  path  of  his  duty,  which  he  never  would 
have  swerved  one  inch  from  that  path  to  seek.  Amid  all  the 
excitement  of  hope  and  fear,  passion  and  panic,  in  England, 
there  was  time  for  the  whole  heart  of  the  nation  to  feel  pride 
in  Havelock' s  career  and  sorrow  for  his  untimely  death.  Un- 
timely ?  Was  it  after  all  untimely  ?  Since  when  has  it  not 
been  held  the  croA\ai  of  a  great  career  that  the  hero  dies  at  the 
moment  of  accomplisiied  victory  ? 

Sir  Colin  Campbell  left  General  Outram  in  charge  of 
Alumbagh,  and  himself  hastened  towards  Cawnpore.  A  large 
hostile  force,  composed  chiefly  of  the  revolted  army  of  Scindia, 
the  ruler  of  Gwahor,  had  marched  upon  Cawnpore.     General 

9 


194      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xiii. 

Windham,  who  held  the  command  there,  had  gone  out  to 
attack  them.  He  was  compelled  to  retreat,  not  without  severe 
loss,  to  his  entrenchments  at  Cawnpore,  and  the  enemy  occu- 
pied the  city  itself.  Sir  Colin  Campbell  attacked  the  rebels  at 
one  place ;  Sir  Hope  Grant  attacked  them  at  another,  and 
Cawnpore  was  retaken.  Sir  Colin  Campbell  then  turned  his 
attention  to  reconquering  the  entire  city  of  Lucknow.  It  was 
not  until  March  19,  1858,  that  Lucknow  fell  completely  into 
the  hands  of  the  English.  Our  operations  had  been  almost 
entirely  by  artillery,  and  had  been  conducted  with  consummate 
prudence  as  well  as  boldness,  and  our  loss  was  therefore  very 
small,  while  the  enemy  suffered  most  severely.  Among  our 
wounded  was  the  gallant  leader  of  the  naval  brigade.  Sir 
William  Peel,  son  of  the  great  statesman.  Sir  W^illiam  Peel 
died  at  Cawnpore  shortly  after,  of  small-pox,  his  death  re- 
marked and  lamented  even  amid  all  the  noble  deaths  of  that 
eventful  time.  One  name  must  not  be  forgotten  among  those 
who  endured  the  siege  of  Lucknow.  It  is  that  of  Dr.  Brydon, 
whom  we  last  saw  as  he  appeared  under  the  walls  of  Jellalabad, 
the  one  survivor  come  back  to  tell  the  tale  of  the  disastrous 
retreat  from  Cabul. 

Practically,  the  reconquest  of  Lucknow  was  the  final  blow 
in  the  suppression  of  the  great  Bengal  mutiny.  Some  episodes 
of  the  war,  however,  were  still  worthy  of  notice.  For  example, 
the  rebels  seized  Gwalior,  the  capital  of  the  Maharajah  Scindia, 
who  escaped  to  Agra.  The  English  had  to  attack  the  rebels, 
retake  Gwalior,  and  restore  Scindia.  The  Maharajah  Scindia 
of  Gwalior  had  deserved  well  of  the  English  Government. 
Under  every  temptation,  every  threat,  and  many  profound 
perils  from  the  rebellion,  he  had  remained  firm  to  his  friend- 
ship. So,  too,  had  Holkar,  the  Maharajah  of  the  Indore 
territory.  The  country  owes  much  to  those  two  princes,  for 
the  part  they  took  at  her  hour  of  need  ;  and  she  has  not,  we 
are  glad  to  think,  proved  herself  ungrateful.  One  ol  those 
who  fought  to  the  last  on  the  rebels'  side  was  the  Eanee,  or 
Princess,  of  Jliansi,  whose  territory,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
had  been  one  of  our  annexations.  For  months  after  the  fall 
of  Delhi  she  contrived  to  baffle  Sir  Hugh  Rose  and  the 
English.  She  led  squadrons  in  the  field.  She  fought  with 
her  own  hand.  She  was  engaged  against  us  in  the  battle  for 
the  possession  of  Gwalior.  In  the  uniform  of  a  cavalry  officer 
she  led  charge  after  charge,  and  she  was  killed  among  those 
who  resisted  to  the  last.     Her  body  was  found  upon  the  field, 


CH.  XIII.  THE  INDIAN  MUTINY.  195 

scarred  with  wounds  enough  in  the  front  to  have  done  credit 
to  any  hero.  Sir  Hugh  Eose  paid  her  the  well-deserved 
tribute  which  a  generous  conqueror  is  always  glad  to  be  able 
to  offer.  He  said,  in  his  general  order,  that  '  the  best  man 
upon  the  side  of  the  enemy  was  the  woman  found  dead,  the 
Eanee  of  Jhansi.' 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe,  with  any  minuteness  of 
detail,  the  final  spasms  of  the  rebellion.  Tantia  Topee,  the 
heutenant  of  Nana  Sahib,  was  taken  prisoner  in  April  1859, 
was  tried  for  his  share  in  the  Cawnpore  massacre,  and  was 
hanged  like  any  vulgar  criminal.  The  old  King  of  Delhi  was 
also  put  on  trial,  and  being  found  guilty,  was  sentenced  to 
transportation.  He  was  sent  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  but 
the  colonists  there  refused  to  receive  him,  and  this  last  of  the 
line  of  the  Grand  Moguls  had  to  go  begging  for  a  prison.  He 
was  finally  carried  to  Eangoon,  in  British  Burmah.  On  De- 
cember 20, 1858,  Lord  Clyde,  who  had  been  Sir  Colin  Campbell, 
amiounced  to  the  Governor- General  that  the  rebellion  was  at 
an  end,  and  on  May  1,  1859,  there  was  a  public  thanksgiving 
in  England  for  the  pacification  of  India. 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

THE    END    OF    'JOHN    COMPANY 

While  these  things  were  passing  in  India,  it  is  needless  to 
say  that  the  public  opinion  of  England  was  distracted  by 
agitation  and  by  opposing  counsels.  For  a  long  time  the 
condition  of  Indian  affairs  had  been  regarded  in  England 
with  something  Uke  absolute  indiflerence.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  a  debate  on  any  question  connected  with  India  was 
as  strictly  an  affair  of  experts  as  a  discussion  on  some  local 
gas  or  water  bill.  The  House  in  general  did  not  even  affect 
to  have  any  interest  in  it.  The  officials  who  had  to  do  with 
Indian  affairs  ;  the  men  on  the  Opposition  benches  who  had 
held  the  same  offices  while  their  party  was  in  power ;  these, 
and  two  or  three  men  who  had  been  in  India,  and  were  set 
down  as  crotchety  because  they  professed  any  concern  in  its 
mode  of  government — such  were  the  politicians  who  carried 
on  an  Indian  debate,  and  who  had  the  House  all  to  themselves 
while  the  discussion  lasted.  The  Indian  Mutiny  startled  the 
public  feeling  of   England  out  of   this  state  of   unhealthy 


195      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  xiv. 

languor.  First  came  the  passion  and  panic,  the  cry  for  blood, 
the  wholesale  executions,  the  blowing  of  rebels  from  guns ; 
then  came  a  certain  degree  of  reaction,  and  some  eminent 
Englishmen  were  found  to  express  alarm  at  the  very  sanguinary 
methods  of  repression  and  of  punishment  that  were  in  favour 
among  most  of  our  fellow-countrymen  in  India. 

It  was  during  this  season  of  reaction  that  the  famous  dis- 
cussions took  place  on  Lord  Canning's  proclamation.  On 
March  3,  1858,  the  proclamation  was  issued  from  Allahabad 
to  the  chiefs  of  Oudli,  and  it  announced  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  lands  then  held  by  six  loyal  proprietors  of  the 
province,  the  proprietary  right  in  the  whole  of  the  soil  of  Oudh 
was  transferred  to  the  British  Government,  which  would  dis- 
pose of  it  in  such  manner  as  might  seem  fitting.  The  disposal, 
however,  was  indicated  by  the  terms  of  the  proclamation.  To 
all  chiefs  and  landholders  who  should  at  once  surrender  to  the 
Chief  Commissioner  of  Oudh  it  was  promised  that  their  lives 
should  be  spared,  '  provided  that  their  hands  are  unstained  by 
English  blood  murderously  shed ; '  but  it  was  stated  that,  '  as 
regards  any  further  indulgence  which  may  be  extended  to  them, 
an4  the  conditions  in  which  they  may  hereafter  be  placed, 
they  must  throw  themselves  upon  the  justice  and  mercy  of 
the  British  Government.'  Bead  by  the  light  of  literalness, 
this  proclamation  unquestionably  seemed  to  amount  to  an 
absolute  confiscation  of  the  whole  soil  of  Oudh  ;  for  even  the 
favoured  landowners  who  were  to  retain  their  properties  were 
given  to  understand  that  they  retained  them  by  the  favour  of 
the  Crown  and  as  a  reward  for  their  loyalty.  Sir  James 
Outram  wrote  at  once  to  Lord  Canning,  pointing  out  that  there 
were  not  a  dozen  landholders  in  Oudh  who.  had  not  either 
themselves  borne  arms  against  us  or  assisted  the  rebels  with 
men  or  money,  and  that,  therefore,  the  effect  of  the  proclama- 
tion would  be  to  confiscate  the  entire  proprietary  right  in  the 
province  and  to  make  the  chiefs  and  landlords  desperate,  and 
that  the  result  w^ould  be  a  *  guerilla  war  for  the  extirpation, 
root  and  branch,  of  this  class  of  men,  which  will  involve  the 
loss  of  thousands  of  Europeans  by  battle,  disease,  and  expo- 
sure.' Lord  Canning  consented  to  insert  in  the  proclamation 
a  clause  announcing  that  a  liberal  indulgence  w^ould  be  granted 
to  those  who  should  promptly  come  forward  to  aid  in  the 
restoration  of  order,  and  that  '  the  Governor- General  will  be 
ready  to  view  liberally  the  claims  which  they  may  thus  acquire 
to  a  restitution  of  their  former  rights.' 


CH.  XIV.  THE  END   OF  '  JOHN  COMPANY.''  197 

In  truth,  it  was  never  the  intention  of  Lord  Canning  to 
put  in  force  any  cruel  and  sweeping  poHcy  of  confiscation. 
Lord  Canning  had  come  to  the  conchision  that  the  Enghsh 
Government  must  start  afresh  in  their  deahngs  with  Oudh. 
He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  necessary  policy  for  all 
parties  concerned  was  to  make  of  the  mutiny,  and  the  conse- 
quent reorganisation,  an  opportunity  not  for  a  wholesale  con- 
fiscation of  the  land,  but  for  a  measure  which  should  declare 
that  the  land  was  held  under  the  power  and  right  of  the 
English  Government.  The  principle  of  his  policy  was  some- 
what like  that  adopted  by  Lord  Durham  in  Canada.  It  seized 
the  power  of  a  dictator  over  life  and  property,  that  the  dictator 
might  be  able  to  restore  peace  and  order  at  the  least  cost  in 
loss  and  suffering  to  the  province  and  the  population  whose 
affairs  it  was  his  task  to  administer.  But  it  may  be  fi'eely 
admitted  that  on  the  face  of  it  the  proclamation  of  Lord 
Canning  looked  strangely  despotic.  Some  of  the  most 
independent  and  liberal  Englishmen  took  this  view  of  it. 
Men  who  had  supported  Lord  Canning  through  all  the  hours 
of  clamour  against  him  felt  compelled  to  express  disapproval 
of  what  they  understood  to  be  his  new  policy.  It  so  happened 
that  Lord  Ellenborough  was  then  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  and  Lord  Ellenborough  was  a  man  who  always 
acted  on  impulse,  and  had  a  passion  for  fine  phrases.  He 
had  a  sincere  love  of  justice,  according  to  his  lights ;  but  he 
had  a  still  stronger  love  for  antithesis.  Lord  Ellenborough 
therefore  had  no  sooner  received  a  copy  of  Lord  Canning's 
proclamation  than  he  despatched  upon  his  own  responsibility 
a  rattling  condemnation  of  the  whole  proceeding.  The  question 
was  taken  up  immediately  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  Lord 
Shaftesbury  in  the  House  of  Lords  moved  a  resolution  de- 
claring that  the  House  regarded  with  regret  and  serious  appre- 
hension the  sending  of  such  a  despatch,  as  such  a  course 
must  prejudice  our  rule  in  India  by  weakening  the  authority 
of  the  Governor- General  and  encouraging  the  resistance  of 
rebels  still  in  arms.  A  similar  motion  was  introduced  by  Mr. 
Cardwell  in  the  House  of  Commons.  In  both  Houses  the 
arraignment  of  the  Ministry  proved  a  failure.  Lord  Ellen- 
borough at  once  took  upon  himself  the  whole  responsibility 
of  an  act  which  was  undoubtedly  all  his  own,  and  he 
resigned  his  office.  The  resolution  was  therefore  defeated  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  a  division,  and  had  to  be  withdrawn 
in  a  rather  ignominious  manner  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


igS     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xiv. 

Lord  Canning  continued  his  policy,  the  poHcy  which  he 
had  marked  out  for  himself,  with  signal  success.  Within  a 
few  weeks  after  the  capture  of  Lucknow,  almost  all  the  large 
landowners  had  tendered  their  allegiance.  Lord  Canning  im- 
pressed upon  his  officers  the  duty  of  making  their  rule  as 
considerate  and  conciliatory  as  possible.  The  new  system 
established  in  Oudli  was  based  upon  the  principle  of  recog- 
nising the  Talookdars  as  responsible  landholders,  while  so 
limiting  their  power  by  the  authority  of  the  Government  as  to 
get  rid  of  old  abuses,  and  protect  the  occupiers  and  cultivators 
of  the  soil.  Canning,  like  Durham,  only  lived  long  enough  to 
hear  the  general  acknowledgment  that  he  had  done  well  for 
the  country  he  was  sent  to  govern,  and  for  the  country  in  whose 
name  and  with  whose  authority  he  went  forth. 

The  rebellion  pulled  down  with  it  a  famous  old  institution, 
the  government  of  the  East  India  Company.  Before  the 
mutiny  had  been  entirely  crushed,  the  rule  of  '  John  Company ' 
came  to  an  end.  The  administration  of  India  had,  indeed, 
long  ceased  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  Company  as  it  was 
in  the  days  of  Warren  Hastings.  A  Board  of  Directors, 
nominated  partly  by  the  Crown  and  partly  by  the  Company, 
sat  in  Leadenhall  Street,  and  gave  general  directions  for  the 
government  of  India.  But  the  Parliamentary  department, 
called  the  Board  of  Control,  had  the  right  of  reviewing  and 
revising  the  decisions  of  the  Company.  The  Crown  had  the 
power  of  nominating  the  Governor- General,  and  the  Company 
had  only  the  power  of  recalling  him.  This  odd  and  perhaps 
unparalleled  system  of  double  government  had  not  much  to 
defend  it  on  strictly  logical  grounds ;  and  the  moment  a  great 
crisis  came  it  was  natural  that  all  the  blame  of  difficulty  and 
disaster  should  be  laid  upon  its  head.  With  the  beginning 
of  the  mutiny  the  impression  began  to  grow  up  in  the  public 
mind  here  that  something  of  a  sweeping  nature  must  be  done 
for  the  reorganisation  of  India  ;  and  before  long  this  vague 
impression  crystallised  into  a  conviction  that  England  must 
take  Indian  administration  into  her  own  hands,  and  that  the 
time  had  come  for  the  fiction  of  rule  by  a  trading  company  to 
be  absolutely  given  up.  In  the  beginning  of  1858  Lord 
Palmerston  introduced  a  bill  to  transfer  the  authority  of  the 
Company  formally  and  absolutely  to  the  Crown.  The  plan  of 
the  scheme  was  that  there  were  to  be  a  president  and  a  council 
of  eight  members,  to  be  nominated  by  the  Government. 
There  was  a  large  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  favour 


CH.  XTV.  THE  END   OF  'JOHN   COMPANY*  199 

of  the  bill ;  but  the  agitation  caused  by  the  attempt  to  assas- 
sinate the  Emperor  of  the  French,  and  Palmerston's  ill-judged 
and  ill-timed  Conspiracy  Bill,  led  to  the  sudden  overthrow  of 
his  Government.  When  Lord  Derby  succeeded  to  power,  he 
brought  in  a  bill  for  the  better  government  of  India  at  once  ; 
but  the  measure  was  a  failure.  Then  Lord  John  Eussell  pro- 
posed that  the  House  should  proceed  by  way  of  resolutions — 
that  is,  that  the  lines  of  a  scheme  of  legislation  should  be  laid 
down  by  a  series  of  resolutions  in  committee  of  the  whole  House, 
and  that  upon  those  lines  the  Government  should  construct 
a  measure.  The  suggestion  was  eagerly  welcomed,  and  after 
many  nights  of  discussion  a  basis  of  legislation  was  at  last 
agreed  upon.  This  bill  passed  into  law  in  the  autumn  of 
1858  ;  and  for  the  remainder  of  Lord  Derby's  tenure  of  power, 
his  son.  Lord  Stanley,  was  Secretary  of  State  for  Lidia.  The  bill, 
which  was  called  '  An  Act  for  the  better  Government  of  India,' 
provided  that  all  the  territories  previously  under  the  government 
of  the  East  India  Company  were  to  be  vested  in  her  Majesty, 
and  all  the  Company's  powers  to  be  exercised  in  her  name. 
One  of  her  Majesty's  principal  Secretaries  of  State  was  to 
have  all  the  power  previously  exercised  by  the  Company,  or  by 
the  Board  of  Control.  The  Secretary  was  to  be  assisted  by  a 
Council  of  India,  to  consist  of  fifteen  members,  of  whom 
seven  were  to  be  elected  by  the  Court  of  Directors  from-  their 
own  body,  and  eight  nominated  by  the  Crown.  The  vacancies 
among  the  nominated  were  to  be  filled  up  by  the  Crown  ;  those 
among  the  elected  by  the  remaining  members  of  the  Council 
for  a  certain  time,  but  afterwards  by  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India.  The  competitive  principle  for  the  Civil  Service  was 
extended  in  its  application  and  made  thoroughly  practical. 
The  military  and  naval  forces  of  the  Company  were  to  be 
deemed  the  forces  of  her  Majesty.  A  clause  was  introduced 
declaring  that,  except  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  or  repelling 
actual  invasion  of  India,  the  Indian  revenues  should  not 
without  the  consent  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  be  appli- 
cable to  defray  the  expenses  of  any  military  operation  carried 
on  beyond  the  external  frontiers  of  her  Majesty's  Indian 
possessions.  Another  clause  enacted  that  whenever  an  order 
was  sent  to  India  directing  the  commencement  of  hostilities 
by  her  Majesty's  forces  there,  the  fact  should  be  communicated 
to  Parliament  within  three  months,  if  Parliament  were  then 
sitting,  or  if  not,  within  one  month  after  its  next  meeting. 
The   Vicaroy  and  Governor- General  was   to  be  supreme  iu 


200      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  xiv. 

India,  but  was  to  be  assisted  by  a  Council.  India  now  has 
nine  provinces,  each  under  its  own  civil  government,  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  others,  but  all  subordinate  to  the  authority 
of  the  Viceroy.  In  accordance  with  this  Act  the  government 
of  the  Company,  the  famed  '  John  Company,'  formally  ceased 
on  September  1, 1858  ;  and  the  Queen  was  proclaimed  through- 
out India  in  the  following  November,  with  Lord  Canning  for 
her  first  Viceroy.  It  was  but  fitting  that  the  man  who  had 
borne  the  strain  of  that  terrible  crisis,  who  had  brought  our 
Indian  Empire  safely  through  it  all,  and  who  had  had  to  endure 
so  much  obloquy  and  to  live  down  so  much  calumny,  should 
have  his  name  consigned  to  history  as  that  of  the  first  of  the 
line  of  British  Viceroys  in  India. 


CHAPTEK  XV. 

THE    CONSPIEACY   BILIi, 

The  last  chapter  has  told  us  that  Lord  Palmerston  introduced 
a  measure  to  transfer  to  the  Crown  the  government  of  India, 
but  that  unexpected  events  in  the  meanwhile  compelled  him  to 
resign  office,  and  called  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli  to  power. 
These  events  had  nothing  to  do  directly  with  the  general  policy 
of  Palmerston  or  Lord  Derby.  At  midday  of  January  14, 
1858,  Lord  Palmerston  seemed  to  be  as  popular  and  as  strong 
as  a  minister  well  could  be.  But  on  the  evening  of  January 
14,  Felice  Orsini,  an  Italian  exile,  made  his  memorable 
attempt  to  assassinate  the  Emperor  of  the  French.  Orsini  lost 
himself,  and  he  drew  the  English  Government  down  at  the  same 
time.  Felice  Orsini  was  well  known  in  England.  He  was  a 
handsome  soldierly-looking  man,  with  intensely  dark  eyes  and 
dark  beard,  whose  one  great  object  was  to  endeavour  to  rouse 
up  the  English  people  to  some  policy  of  intervention  on  behalf 
of  Italy  against  Austria.  After  a  while,  however,  he  found 
out  that  England  would  do  nothing.  The  English  Liberals, 
with  the  exception  of  a  very  few  enthusiasts,  were  just  as  much 
opposed  to  the  principle  of  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  other 
States  as  the  Conservatives.  But  Orsini  set  himself  to  devise 
some  explanation  for  what  was  simply  the  prudent  and  just 
determination  of  all  the  statesmen  and  leading  politicians  of  the 
'•ountry.  He  found  the  explanation  in  the  subtle  influence  of 
Llie  Emperor  of  the  French,  and  he  appears  then  to  have 


CH.  XV.  THE  CONSPIRACY  BILL,  2oi 

allowed  the  idea  to  get  possession  of  him  that  the  removal  of 
the  Emperor  of  the  French  from  the  scene  was  an  indispensable 
preliminary  to  any  policy  having  for  its  object  the  emancipa- 
tion of  Italy  from  Austrian  rule.  He  brooded  on  this  idea 
until  it  became  a  project  and  a  passion.  It  transformed  a 
soldier  and  a  patriot  into  an  assassin. 

On  January  14,  Orsini  and  his  felloW-conspirators  made 
their  attempt  in  the  Eue  Lepelletier  in  Paris.  As  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  of  the  French  were  driving  up  to  the  door  of  the 
Opera-house  in  that  street,  Orsini  and  his  companions  flung  at 
and  into  the  carriage  three  shells  or  bombs  shaped  like  a  pear, 
and  filled  with  detonating  powder.  The  shells  exploded,  and 
killed  and  wounded  many  persons.  So  minute  were  the  frag- 
ments m  which  the  bombs  burst  that  516  wounds,  great  and 
little,  were  inflicted  by  the  explosion.  Ten  persons  were 
killed,  156  were  wounded.  It  was  said  at  the  time  that  the 
Orsini  plot  frightened  the  Emperor  of  the  French  into  taking 
up  the  cause  of  Italy.  Historical  revelations  made  at  a  later 
period  show  that  this  is  altogether  a  mistake.  We  now  know 
that  at  the  time  of  the  Congress  of  Paris  Count  Cavour  had 
virtually  arranged  with  the  Emperor  the  plans  of  policy  which 
were  afterwards  carried  out,  and  that  even  before  that  time 
Cavour  was  satisfied  in  his  own  mind  as  to  the  ultimate  cer- 
tainty of  Louis  Napoleon's  co-operation.  Those  who  are  glad 
to  see  Italy  a  nation,  may  be  glad  to  know  that  Orsini's  bombs 
had  nothing  to  do  with  her  success.  Four  persons  were  put 
on  trial  as  participators  in  the  attempt,  three  of  them  having 
actually  thrown  the  bombs.  Only  two,  however,  were  exe- 
cuted, Orsini  and  Pierri ;  the  other  two  were  sentenced  to  penal 
servitude  for  life. 

In  France  an  outburst  of  anger  followed  the  attempt  in  the 
Eue  Lepelletier  ;  but  the  anger  was  not  so  much  against  Orsini 
as  against  England.  One  of  the  persons  charged  along  with 
Orsini,  although  he  was  not  tried  in  Paris,  for  he  could  not  be 
found  there,  was  a  Frenchman,  Simon  Bernard,  who  had  long 
been  living  in  London.  It  was  certain  that  many  of  the 
arrangements  for  the  plot  were  made  in  London.  The  bombs 
were  manufactured  in  Birmingham,  and  were  ordered  for  Orsini 
"by  an  Englishman.  It  was  known  that  Orsini  had  many  friends 
and  admirers  in  this  country.  The  Imperialists  in  France  at 
once  assumed  that  England  was  a  country  where  assassination 
of  foreign  sovereigns  was  encouraged  by  the  population,  and 
not  discouraged  by  the  laws.  The  French  Minister  for  Foreign 
9"^ 


2oa      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,       ch.  xv. 

Affairs,  Count  AValewski,  wrote  a  despatch,  in  which  he  asked 
whether  England  considered  that  hospitahty  was  due  to  assas- 
sins. The  Due  de  Persigny,  then  Ambassador  of  France  in 
England,  made  a  very  foolish  and  unfortunate  reply  to  a 
deputation  from  the  Corporation  of  London,  in  which  he  took 
on  himself  to  point  out  that  if  the  law  of  England  was  strong 
enough  to  put  down*  conspiracies  for  assassination  it  ought  to 
be  put  in  motion,  and  if  it  were  not,  it  ought  to  be  made 
stronger.  Addresses  of  congratulation  were  poured  in  upon 
the  Emperor  from  the  French  army,  and  many  of  them  were 
full  of  insulting  allusions  to  England  as  the  sheltering-ground 
of  assassination.  A  semi-official  pamphlet,  published  in 
Paris,  and  entitled  '  The  Emperor  Napoleon  the  Third  and 
England,'  actually  went  the  ridiculous  length  of  describing 
an  obscure  debating  club  in  a  Fleet  Street  public-house,  where 
a  few  dozen  honest  fellows  smoked  their  pipes  of  a  night  and 
talked  hazy  politics,  as  a  formidable  political  institution  where 
regicide  was  nightly  preached  to  fanatical  desperadoes. 

Thus  we  had  the  public  excited  on  both  sides.  The  feeling 
of  anger  on  this  side  was  intensified  by  the  conviction  that 
France  was  insulting  us  because  she  thought  England  was 
crippled  by  her  troubles  in  India,  and  had  no  power  to  resent 
an  insult.  It  was  while  men  here  were  smarting  under  this 
sense  of  wrong  that  Lord  Palmerston  introduced  his  famous 
measure  for  the  suppression  and  punishment  of  conspiracies 
to  murder.  The  bill  was  introduced  in  consequence  of  the 
despatch  of  Count  Walewski.  In  that  despatch  it  was  sug- 
gested to  the  English  Government  that  they  ought  to  do 
something  to  strengthen  their  law.  The  words  were  very 
civil.  Nor  was  the  request  they  contained  in  itself  unreason- 
able. Long  afterwards  this  country  had  to  acknowledge,  in 
reply  to  the  demand  of  the  United  States,  that  a  nati'^n  can- 
not get  rid  of  her  responsibility  to  a  foreign  people  by  pleading 
that  her  municipal  legislation  does  not  provide  for  this  or  that 
emergency.  The  natural  rejoinder  is,  '  Then  you  had  better 
make  such  a  law ;  you  are  not  to  injure  us  and  get  off  by 
saying  your  laws  allow  us  to  be  injured.'  But  the  conditions 
under  which  the  request  was  made  by  France  had  put  England 
in  the  worst  possible  mood  for  acceding  to  it.  Ominous  ques- 
tions were  put  to  the  Government  in  both  Houses  of  Par- 
ment.  In  the  House  of  Commons  ]\Ir.  Poebuck  asked  whether 
any  communications  had  passed  between  the  Governments  of 
England  and  France  with  respect  to   the  Alien  Act  or   any 


CH.  XV.  THE  CONSPIRACY  BILL,  203 

portion  of  our  criminal  code.  Lord  Palmerston  answered  \>^ 
mentioning  Count  Walewski's  despatch,  which  he  said  should 
be  laid  before  the  House.  He  added  a  few  words  about  the 
addresses  of  the  French  regiments,  and  pleaded  that  allow- 
ance should  be  made  for  the  irritation  caused  by  the  attempt 
on  the  life  of  the  Emperor.  He  was  asked  a  significant 
question — had  the  Government  sent  any  answer  to  Count 
Walewski's  despatch  ?  No,  was  the  reply  ;  her  Majesty's 
Government  had  not  answered  it  ;  not  yet. 

Two  or  three  days  after  Lord  Palmerston  moved  for  leave 
to  bring  in  the  Conspiracy  to  Murder  Bill.  The  chief  object 
of  the  measure  was  to  make  conspiracy  to  murder  a  felony 
instead  of  a  mere  misdemeanour,  as  it  had  been  in  England, 
and  to  render  it  liable  to  penal  servitude  for  any  period  vary- 
ing from  five  years  to  a  whole  life.  Lord  Palmerston  made  a 
feeble  and  formal  attempt  to  prove  that  his  bill  was  introduced 
simply  as  a  measure  of  needed  reform  in  our  criminal  legis- 
lation, and  without  special  reference  to  anything  that  nad 
happened  in  France.  The  law  against  conspiracy  to  murder 
was  very  light  in  England,  he  showed,  and  was  very  severe  in 
Ireland.  It  was  now  proposed  to  make  the  law  the  same  in 
both  countries — that  was  all.  Of  course  no  one  was  deceived 
by  this  explanation.  The  bill  itself  was  as  much  of  a  sham 
as  the  explanation.  Such  a  measure  would  not  have  been  of 
any  account  whatever  as  regarded  the  offences  against  which 
it  was  particularly  directed.  Lord  Palmerston,  we  may  be 
sure,  did  not  put  the  slightest  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  piece 
of  legislation  he  had  undertaken  to  recommend  to  Parliament. 
He  was  compelled  to  believe  that  the  Government  would  have 
to  do  something ;  and  he  came,  after  a  while,  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  most  harmless  measure  would  be  the  best.  Mr. 
Kinglake  moved  an  amendment,  formally  expressing  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  House  with  the  French  people,  on  account  of  the 
attempt  made  against  the  Emperor,  but  declaring  it  inexpedient 
to  legislate  in  compliance  with  the  demand  made  in  Comit 
Walewski's  despatch  of  January  20,  '  until  further  information 
is  before  it  of  the  communications  of  the  two  Governments 
subsequent  to  the  date  of  that  despatch.'  Mr.  Disraeli  voted 
for  the  bringing  in  of  the  bill,  and  made  a  cautious  speech, 
in  which  he  showed  himself  in  favour  of  some  sort  of  legis- 
lation, but  did  not  commit  himself  to  approval  of  that  par- 
ticular measure.  The  bill  was  read  a  first  time.  Two  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  votes  were  for  it ;  only  ninety-nine  against. 


204        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      ch.  XV. 

But  before  it  came  on  for  a  second  reading  public  opinion  wag 
begimiing  to  declare  ominously  against  it.  The  fact  that  the 
Government  had  not  answered  the  despatch  of  Count  Walewsld 
told  heavily  against  them.  It  was  afterwards  explained  that 
Lord  Cowley  had  been  instructed  to  answer  it  orally,  and 
that  Lord  Palmerston  thought  this  course  the  more  prudent, 
and  the  more  likely  to  avoid  an  increase  of  irritation  between 
the  two  countries.  But  public  opinion  in  England  was  not 
now  to  be  propitiated  by  counsels  of  moderation.  The  idea 
had  gone  abroad  that  Lord  Palmerston  was  trucklmg  to  the 
Emperor  of  the  French,  and  that  the  very  right  of  asylum 
which  England  had  so  long  afforded  to  the  exiles  of  all  nations, 
was  to  be  sacrificed  at  the  bidding  of  one  who  had  been  glad 
to  avail  himself  of  it  in  his  hour  of  need. 

This  idea  received  support  from  the  arrest  of  Dr.  Simon 
Bernard,  a  French  refugee,  who  was  immediately  put  on  trial 
as  an  accomplice  in  Orsini's  plot.  Bernard  was  a  native  of 
the  South  of  France,  a  surgeon  by  profession,  and  had  lived  a 
long  time  in  England.  The  arrest  of  Bernard  may  have  been 
a  very  proper  thing,  but  it  came  in  with  most  untimely  effect 
upon  the  Government.  It  was  understood  to  have  been  made 
by  virtue  of  information  sent  over  from  Paris,  and  no  one 
could  have  failed  to  observe  that  the  loosest  accusations  of 
that  kind  were  always  coming  from  the  French  capital. 
Many  persons  were  influenced  in  their  belief  of  Bernard's 
innocence  by  the  fact,  which  does  assuredly  count  for  some- 
thing, that  Orsini  himself  had  almost  with  his  dying  breath 
declared  that  Bernard  knew  nothing  of  the  intended  assassina- 
tion. Not  a  few  made  up  their  minds  that  he  was  innocent 
because  the  French  Government  accused  him  of  guilt ;  and 
still  more  declared  that  innocent  or  guilty  he  ought  not  to  be 
arrested  by  English  authorities  at  the  bidding  of  a  French 
Emperor.  The  debate  was  over  and  the  Conspiracy  Bill  disposed 
of  before  the  Bernard  trial  came  to  an  end  ;  but  we  may  antici- 
pate by  a  few  days,  and  finish  the  Bernard  story.  Bernard  was 
tried  at  the  Central  Criminal  Court  under  existing  law  ;  he 
was  defended  by  Mr.  Edwin  James,  a  well-kno"wii  criminal 
lawyer,  and  he  was  acquitted.  The  trial  was  a  practical 
illustration  of  the  inutility  of  such  special  legislation  as  that 
which  Lord  Palmerston  attempted  to  introduce.  A  new  law 
of  conspiracy  could  not  have  furnished  any  new  evidence 
against  Bernard,  or  persuaded  a  jury  to  convict  him  on  such 
evidence  as  there  was.     In  the  prevailing  temper  of  the  public 


CH.  XV.  THE  CONSPIRACY  BILL,  '  205 

the  evidence  should  have  been  very  clear  indeed  to  induce  an 
ordinary  English  jury  to  convict  a  man  like  Bernard,  and  the 
evidence  of  his  knowledge  of  an  intended  assassination  was 
anything  but  clear. 

In  the  midst  of  the  commotion  caused  by  Bernard's  arrest, 
Mr.  Milner  Gibson  quietly  gave  notice  of  an  amendment  to 
the  second  reading  of  the  Conspiracy  Bill.  The  amendment 
proposed  to  declare  that  while  the  House  heard  with  regret 
the  allesfation  that  the  recent  crime  has  been  devised  in 
England,  and  was  always  ready  to  assist  in  remedymg  any 
proved  defects  in  the  criminal  law,  '  yet  it  cannot  but  regret 
that  her  Majesty's  Government,  previously  to  inviting  the 
House  to  amend  the  law  of  conspiracy  by  the  second  reading 
of  this  bill  at  the  present  time,  have  not  felt  it  to  be  their 
duty  to  make  some  reply  to  the  important  despatch  received 
from  the  French  Government,  dated  Paris,  January  20,  1858, 
and  which  has  been  laid  before  Parliament.'  It  might  have 
been  seen  at  once  that  this  was  a  more  serious  business  for 
the  Government  than  Mr.  Kinglake's  amendment.  In  fore- 
casting the  result  of  a  motion  in  the  House  of  Commons  much 
depends  on  the  person  who  brings  it  forward.  Has  he  a  party 
behind  him?  If  so,  then  the  thing  is  important.  If  not,  let 
his  ability  be  what  it  will,  his  motion  is  looked  on  as  a  mere 
expression  of  personal  opinion,  interesting  perhaps  but  with- 
out political  consequence.  Mr.  Kingiake  was  emphatically  a 
man  without  a  party  behind  him ;  Mr.  Gibson  was  emphatically 
a  man  of  party  and  of  practical  poUtics.  Mr.  Kingiake  was  a 
brilliant  literary  man  who  had  proved  little  better  than  a 
failure  in  the  House  ;  Mr.  Gibson  was  a  successful  member 
of  Parliament  and  nothing  else.  When  the  debate  on  the 
second  reading  came  on  it  began  soon  to  be  seen  that  the  con- 
dition of  things  was  grave  for  Lord  Palmerston.  Every  hour 
and  every  speech  made  it  more  ominous.  Mr.  Gladstone 
spoke  eloquently  against  the  Government.  Mr.  Disraeli 
suddenly  discovered  that  he  was  bound  to  vote  against  the 
second  reading,  although  he  had  voted  for  the  first.  The 
Government,  he  argued,  had  not  yet  answered  the  despatch 
as  they  might  have  done  in  the  interval,  and  as  they  had  not 
vindicated  the  honour  of  England,  the  House  of  Commons 
could  not  entrust  them  with  the  measure  they  demanded. 
Lord  Palmerston  saw  that,  in  homely  phrase,  the  game  was 
up.  He  was  greatly  annoyed ;  he  lost  his  temper,  and  did 
not  even  try  to  conceal  the  fact  that  he  had  lost  it.     For  & 


2o6        A  SHORT  BIS  TORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      cii.  xv. 

genial  and  kindly  as  well  as  a  graceful  man,  it  was  singular 
how  completely  Lord  Palmerston  always  lost  his  good  manners 
when  he  lost  his  temper.  Under  the  influence  of  sudden  anger, 
luckily  a  rare  influence  with  him,  he  could  be  actually  vulgar. 
Lord  Palmerston,  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Milner  Gibson,  showed 
a  positive  spitefulness  of  tone  and  temper  very  unusual  in 
him,  and  especially  unbecoming  in  a  losing  man.  A  states- 
man may  rise  as  he  will,  but  he  should  fal^  with  dignity. 
"When  the  division  was  taken  it  appeared  that  there  were  215 
votes  for  the  second  reading  and  234  against  it.  The  Govern- 
ment, therefore,  were  left  in  a  minority  of  19  ;  146  Conserva- 
tives were  in  the  majority  and  84  Liberals.  Besides  these 
there  were  such  of  the  Peelite  party  as  Sir  James  Graham, 
Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Cardwell,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert.  Lord 
Palmerston  at  once  made  up  his  mind  to  resign.  His  resigna- 
tion was  accepted.  Not  quite  a  year  had  passed  since  the 
general  elections  sent  Lord  Palmerston  into  power  triumphant 
over  the  routed  Liberals  and  the  prostrate  Manchester  School. 
Not  quite  a  year,  and  now,  on  the  motion  of  one  of  the  lieu- 
tenants of  that  same  party  returned  to  their  position  again, 
Lord  Palmerston  is  ejected  from  ofiice.  Palme. ston  once 
talked  of  having  his  '  tit-for-tat  with  John  Kussell.'  The 
Peace  party  now  had  their  tit-for-tat  with  him. 

Lord  Palmerston  had  the  satisfaction  before  he  left  office 
of  being  able  to  announce  the  capture  of  Canton.  The  opera- 
tions against  China  had  been  virtually  suspended,  it  will  be 
remembered,  when  the  Indian  Mutiny  broke  out.  England  had 
now  got  the  co-operation  of  France.  France  had  a  complaint 
of  long  standing  against  China  on  account  of  the  murder  of 
some  missionaries,  for  which  redress  had  ^^een  asked  in  vain. 
There  was,  therefore,  an  allied  attack  maae  upon  Canton,  and 
of  course  the  city  was  easily  captured.  Commissioner  Yeh 
himself  was  taken  prisoner,  not  until  h'^  had  been  sought  for 
and  hunted  out  in  most  ignominious  fashion.  He  was  found 
at  last  hidden  away  in  some  obscure  part  of  a  house.  He  was 
known  by  his  enormous  fatness.  One  of  our  officers  caught 
hold  of  him  ;  Yeh  tried  still  to  get  away.  A  British  seaman 
seized  Yeh  by  his  pigtail,  twisted  the  tail  several  times  round 
his  hand,  and  thus  made  the  unfortunate  Chinese  dignitary  a 
helpless  and  ludicrous  prisoner.  When  it  was  convenient  to 
let  loose  Yell's  pigtail,  he  was  put  on  board  an  English  man- 
of-war,  and  afterwards  sent  to  Calcutta,  where  he  died  early 
in  the  following  year.     Unless  report  greatly  belied  liim  ha 


CH.  XV.  THE   CONSPIRACY  BILL,  '  207 

had  been  exceptionally  cruel,  even  for  a  Chinese  official.  The 
English  and  French  Envoys,  Lord  Elgin  and  Baron  Gros, 
succeeded  in  making  a  treaty  with  China.  By  the  conditions 
of  the  treaty,  England  and  France  were  to  have  ministers  at 
the  Chinese  Court,  on  certain  special  occasions  at  least,  and 
China  was  to  be  represented  in  London  and  Paris  ;  there  was 
to  be  toleration  of  Christianity  in  China,  and  a  certain  freedom 
of  access  to  Chinese  rivers  for  English  and  French  mercantile 
vessels,  and  to  the  interior  of  China  for  English  and  French 
subjects.  China  was  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war.  It  waa 
further  agreed  that  the  term  '  barbarian '  was  no  longer  to  be 
applied  to  Europeans  in  China.  There  was  great  congratula- 
tion in  England  over  this  treaty,  and  the  prospect  it  afforded 
of  a  lasting  peace  with  China.  The  peace  thus  procured  lasted 
in  fact  exactly  a  year. 

The  Ministry  of  Lord  Derby,  whereof  Mr.  Disraeli  wag 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  not  supported  by  a 
Parliamentary  majority,  nor  could  it  pretend  to  great  in- 
tellectual and  administrative  ability.  It  had  in  its  ranks 
two  or  three  men  of  statesmanlike  capacity,  and  a  number 
of  respectable  persons  possessing  abilities  about  equal  to 
those  of  any  intelligent  business  man  or  county  magis- 
trate. Mr.  Disraeli  of  course  became  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.  Lord  Stanley  undertook  the  Colonies ;  Mr. 
Walpole  made  a  painstaking  and  conscientious  Home  Secre- 
tary, as  long  as  he  continued  to  hold  the  omce.  Lord 
Malmesbury  muddled  on  with  Foreign  Affairs  somehow; 
Lord  Ellenborough's  brilliant  eccentric  light  perplexed  for  a 
brief  space  the  Indian  Department.  General  Peel  was 
Secretary  for  war,  and  Mr.  Henley,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade.  Lord  Naas,  afterwards  Lord  Mayo,  became  chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland,  and  w^as  then  supposed  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  kindly,  sweet-tempered  man,  of  whom  his  most 
admiring  friends  would  never  have  ventured  to  foreshadow 
such  a  destiny  as  that  he  should  succeed  to  the  place  of  a 
Canning  and  an  Elgin,  and  govern  the  new  India  to  which  so 
many  anxious  eyes  were  turned.  Sir  John  Pakington  was 
made  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  because  a  place  of  some 
kind  had  to  be  found  for  him,  and  he  was  as  likely  to  do  well  at 
the  head  of  the  navy  as  anywhere  else.  No  Conservative 
Government  could  be  supposed  to  get  on  without  Lord  John 
Manners,  and  luckily  there  was  the  Department  of  Public 
Works  for  him. 


ao8         A   SHORT   WIS  TORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XV. 

Lord  Stanley  was  regarded  as  a  statesman  of  great  and 
peculiar  promise.  The  party  to  wliicli  he  belonged  were 
inclined  to  make  him  an  object  of  especial  pride,  because  he 
seemed  to  have  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  very  qualities 
which  most  of  their  leading  members  were  generally  accused 
of  wanting.  Lord  Stanley  had  a  calm,  meditative  intellect. 
He  studied  politics  as  one  may  study  a  science.  He  under- 
stood political  economy.  He  had  travelled  much  ;  not  merely 
making  the  old-fashioned  grand  tour,  which  most  of  the  Tory 
country  gentlemen  had  themselves  made,  but  visiting  the 
United  States  and  Canada  and  the  Indies,  East  and  West. 
He  was  understood  to  know  all  about  geography  and  cotton 
and  sugar  ;  and  he  had  come  up  into  politics  in  a  happy  age 
when  the  question  of  Free  Trade  was  -  believed  to  be  settled. 
Lord  Stanley  was  strangely  unlike  his  father  in  intellect  and 
temperament.  The  one  man  was  indeed  almost  the  very 
opposite  of  the  other.  Lord  Derby  was  all  instinct  and 
passion  ;  Lord  Stanley  was  all  method  and  calculation.  Lord 
Derby  amused  himself  in  the  intervals  of  political  work  by 
translating  classic  epics  and  odes  ;  Lord  Stanley  beguiled  an 
interval  of  leisure  by  the  reading  of  Blue-books.  Lord  Derby's 
eloquence  when  at  its  worst  became  fiery  nonsense ;  Lord 
Stanley's  sank  occasionally  to  be  nothing  better  than  platitude. 
The  extreme  of  the  one  was  rhapsody,  and  of  the  other 
commonplace.  Lord  Derby  was  too  hot  and  impulsive  to  be 
always  a  sound  statesman ;  Lord  Stanley  was  too  coldly 
methodical  to  be  the  statesman  of  a  crisis.  Both  men  were 
to  a  certain  sense  superficial  and  deceptive.  Lord  Derby's 
eloquence  had  no  great  depth  in  it ;  and  Lord  Stanley's 
wisdom  often  proved  somewhat  thin.  The  career  of  Lcrd 
Stanley  did  not  afterwards  bear  out  all  the  expectations  tliat 
were  originally  formed  of  him.  He  proved  to  be  methodical, 
sensible,  conscientious,  slow.  But  at  the  time  when  he 
accepted  the  Indian  Secretaryship  people  on  both  sides  of  the 
political  contest  looked  to  him  as  a  new  and  great  figure  in 
Conservative  politics.  He  was  not  an  orator  ;  he  had  nothing 
whatever  of  the  orator  in  language  or  in  temperament.  His 
manner  was  ineffective  ;  his  delivery  was  decidedly  bad.  But 
his  words  carried  weight  with  them,  and  even  his  common- 
places were  received  by  some  of  his  party  as  the  utterances  of 
on  oracle.  There  were  men  among  the  Conservatives  on  the 
back  benches  who  secretly  hoped  that  in  this  wise  young  man 
was  the  upcoming  statesman  who  was  to  deliver  the  party 


CH.  XV.  THE   CONSPIRACY  BILL,  209 

from  the  tliraldom  of  eccentric  genius,  and  of  an  eloquence 
which,  however  brilhantly  it  fought  their  battles,  seemed  to 
them  hardly  a  respectable  sort  of  gift  to  be  employed  m  the 
service  of  gentlemanlike  Tory  principles. 

The  superiority  of  the  Opposition  in  debating  powder  was 
simply  overwhelming.  In  the  House  of  Commons  Mr.  Disraeli 
was  the  only  first- class  debater,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of 
the  new  Solicitor-General,  Sir  Hugh  Cairns  ;  and  against  him 
were  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  John  Kussell,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
Sir  James  Graham,  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert,  Mr.  Cobden,  and 
Mr.  Bright,  everyone  of  them  a  first-class  debater ;  some 
of  them  great  Parliamentary  orators ;  some,  too,  with  the 
influence  that  comes  from  the  fact  of  their  having  led 
ministries  and  conducted  wars.  Li  no  political  assembly  in 
the  world  does  experience  of  office  and  authority  tell  for  more 
than  in  the  House  of  Commons.  To  have  lield  office  confers 
a  certain  dignity  even  on  mediocrity.  The  man  who  once  held 
office,  and  w^ho  sits  on  the  front  bench  opposite  the  ministry, 
has  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  to  be  heard  whenever  he  stands 
up  to  address  the  House,  in  preference  to  the  most  rising  and 
brilliant  talker  w^ho  has  never  yet  been  a  member  of  an 
administration.  Mr.  Disraeli  w^ell  knew  that  his  party  held 
office  only  on  sufferance  from  their  opponents.  If  they 
attempted  nothing,  they  w^ere  certain  to  be  censured  for  in- 
activity ;  if  they  attempted  anything,  there  w^as  the  chance  of 
their  exposing  themselves  to  the  combined  attack  of  all  the 
sections  of  the  Liberal  party.  Luckily  for  them  it  was  not 
easy  to  bring  about  such  a  combination  just  yet ;  but  w^hen- 
ever  it  came,  there  was  foreshown  the  end  of  the  ministry. 

Lord  Derby's  Government  quietly  dropped  the  milucky 
Conspiracy  Bill.  England  and  France  were  alike  glad  to  be 
out  of  the  difficulty.  There  was  a  short  interchange  of 
correspondence,  in  which  the  French  Government  explained 
that  they  really  had  meant  nothing  m  particular,  and  it  was 
then  announced  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament  that  the  mis- 
understanding was  at  an  end,  and  that  friendship  had  set  in 
again.  We  have  seen  already  how  the  India  Bill  w^as  carried. 
Lord  Derby's  tenure  of  office  w^as  made  remarkable  by  the 
success  of  one  measure  which  must  have  given  much  personal 
satisfaction  to  Mr.  Disraeli.  The  son  of  a  Jewish  father,  the 
descendant  of  an  ancient  Jewish  race,  himself  received  as  a 
child  into  the  Jewish  commmiitv,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  since  his 
earliest  years  of  intelligence  been  a  Christian.     But  he  had 


210        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     cir.  xv. 

never  renounced  liis  sympathies  with  the  race  to  which  he 
belonged,  and  the  faith  in  which  his  fathers  worshipped.  He 
had  always  stood  up  for  the  Jews.  He  had  in  some  of  his 
novels  seemingly  set  about  to  persuade  his  readers  that  all  of 
good  and  great  the  modern  world  had  seen  was  due  to  the 
unceasing  intellectual  activity  of  the  Jewish  race. 

Mr.  Disraeli  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  the  civil  eman- 
cipation of  the  Jews  accomplished  during  the  time  of  his  leader- 
ship of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  a  coincidence  merely. 
He  had  always  assisted  the  movement  towards  that  end  ;  but 
the  success  did  not  come  from  any  inspiration  of  his  ;  and 
most  of  his  colleagues  in  power  resisted  it  as  long  as  they 
could.  In  July  1858  the  long  political  and  sectarian  struggle 
came  to  an  end  when  Baron  Lionel  Nathan  de  Eothschild 
was  allowed  to  take  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons 
as  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  City  of  London. 
We  have  seen  how  by  steps  the  Jews  made  their  way  into 
municipal  office  and  into  the  magistracy.  At  the  same  time 
persistent  efforts  were  being  made  to  obtain  for  them  the 
right  to  be  elected  to  the  House  of  Commons.  On  April 
5,  1830,  Mr.  Eobert  Grant,  then  a  colleague  of  one  of  the 
Gurney.  family  in  the  representation  of  Norwich,  moved  for 
leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  allow  British-born  Jews  to  enjoy  all 
the  rights  of  the  British  subject,  without  having  to  profess 
the  religion  of  the  State.  At  that  time  the  Jews  were  unable 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  inasmuch  as  it  was  sworn  on 
the  Evangelists.  Nor  could  they  take  the  oath  of  abjuration, 
intended  to  guard  against  the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  because 
that  oath  contained  the  words  '  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian.' 

The  debate  on  Mr.  Grant's  motion  was  made  memorable  by 
the  fact  that  Macaulay  delivered  then  his  maiden  speech.  The 
proposal  for  the  admission  of  Jews  to  Parliament  was  supported 
by  Lord  John  Eussell,  O'Connell,  Brougham,  and  Mackintosh. 
Its  first  reading— for  it  was  opposed  even  on  the  first  reading 
— was  carried  by  a  majority  of  eighteen ;  but  on  the  motion  for 
the  second  reading  the  bill  was  thrown  out  by  a  majority  of 
sixty-three,  the  votes  for  it  being  1G5  and  those  against  it 
228.  In  1833  Mr.  Grant  introduced  his  bill  again,  and  this 
time  was  fortunate  enough  to  pass  it  through  the  Commons. 
The  Lords  rejected  it  by  a  majority  of  fifty.  The  following 
Tear  told  a  similar  story.  The  Commons  accepted ;  the 
Lords  rejected.  Meantime  the  Jews  were  being  gradually 
relieved  from  other  restrictions.     A  clause  in  Lord  Denman's 


CH.  XV.  •      THE   CONSPIRACY  BILL,  211 

Act  for  amending  the  laws  of  evidence  allowed  all  persons  to 
be  sworn  in  courts  of  law  in  the  form  which  they  held  most 
binding  on  their  conscience.  Lord  Lyndlim'st  succeeded  in 
passing  a  bill  for  the  admission  of  Jews  to  corporate  offices. 
Jews  had,  as  we  have  already  seen,  been  admitted  to  the 
shrievalty  and  the  magistracy  in  the  beginning  of  Queen 
Victoria's  reign.  In  1848  the  struggle  for  their  admission  to 
Parliament  was  renewed,  but  the  Lords  still  held  out  and 
w^ould  not  pass  a  bill.  Meanwhile  influential  Jews  began  to 
ofler  themselves  as  candidates  for  seats  in  Parliament.  Mr. 
Salomons  contested  Shoreham  and  Maidstone  successively  and 
unsuccessfully.  Li  1847  Baron  Lionel  Eothschild  was  elected 
one  of  the  members  for  the  City  of  London.  He  resigned 
his  seat  when  the  House  of  Lords  threw  out  the  Jews'  bill, 
and  stood  again  and  was  again  elected.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  1850  that  the  struggle  was  actually  transferred  to  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Commons.  In  that  year  Baron 
Piothschild  presented  himself  at  the  table  of  the  House  and 
offered  to  take  the  oaths  in  order  that  he  might  be  admitted 
to  take  his  seat.  For  four  sessions  he  had  sat  as  a  stranger 
in  the  House  of  which  he  had  been  duly  elected  a  member  by 
the  votes  of  one  of  the  most  important  English  constituencies. 
Now  he  came  boldly  up  to  the  table  and  demanded  to  be 
sworn.  He  was  sworn  on  the  Old  Testament.  He  took  the 
Oaths  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy ;  but  when  the  Oath  of 
Abjuration  came  he  omitted  from  it  the  words  '  on  the  true 
faith  of  a  Christian.'  He  was  directed  to  withdraw,  and  it 
was  decided  that  he  could  neither  sit  nor  vote  unless  he  would 
consent  to  take  the  oath  of  abjuration  in  the  fashion  pre- 
scribed by  the  law. 

Baron  Ptothschild  did  not  contest  the  matter  any  further. 
Mr.  David  Salomons  was  inclined  for  a  rougher  and  bolder 
course.  He  was  elected  for  Greenwich  in  1851,  and  he  pre- 
sented himself  as  Baron  Rothschild  had  done.  The  same 
thing  followed  ;  he  refused  to  say  the  w^ords,  '  on  the  true  faith 
of  a  Christian,'  and  he  w\as  directed  to  withdraw.  He  did 
withdraw.  He  sat  below  the  bar.  A  few  eveninofs  after  a 
question  was  put  to  the  Government  by  a  member  friendly  to 
the  admission  of  the  Jews,  Sir  Benjamin  Hall,  afterwards  Lord 
Llanover  :  *  If  Mr.  Salomons  should  take  his  seat,  would  the 
Government  sue  him  for  the  penalties  provided  by  the  Act  of 
Parliament  in  order  that  the  question  of  right  might  be  tried 
by  a  court  of  law  ?  '    Lord  John  Eussell  replied  on  the  part 


212        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TTMES,       ch.  xv. 

of  the  Government  that  they  did  not  intend  to  take  any 
proceedings  ;  in  fact,  imphed  that  they  considered  it  no  affoir 
of  theirs.  Then  Sir  Benjamin  Hall  announced  that  Mr. 
Salomons  felt  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  take  his  seat  and 
let  the  question  of  right  be  tested  in  that  way.  Forthwith,  to 
the  amazement  and  horror  of  steady  old  constitutional 
members,  Mr.  Salomons,  who  had  been  sitting  below  the  bar, 
calmly  got  up,  walked  into  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  House, 
and  took  his  seat  amongst  the  members.  A  tumultuous  scene 
followed.  Half  the  House  shouted  indignantly  to  Mr. 
Salomons  to  *  withdraw,  withdraw  ;  '  the  other  half  called  out 
encouragingly  to  him  to  keep  his  place.  The  perplexity  was 
indescribable.  V/hat  is  to  be  done  with  a  quiet  and  respect- 
able gentleman  who  insists  that  he  is  a  member  of  Parliament, 
comes  and  takes  his  seat  in  the  House  and  will  not  withdraw  ? 
Mr.  Salomons  had  undoubtedly  been  elected  member  for 
Greenwich  by  a  considerable  majority.  His  constituents  believed 
him  to  be  their  lawful  representative,  and  in  fact  had  obtained 
from  him  a  promise  that  if  elected  he  w^ould  actually  take  his 
seat.  Many  members  were  of  opinion,  and  eminent  lawyers 
were  among  them,  that  in  the  strictest  and  most  teclmical 
view  of  the  law  he  was  entitled  to  take  his  seat.  Many  more 
were  convinced  that  the  principle  which  excluded  him  was 
stupid  and  barbarous,  and  that  the  course  he  was  at  present 
taking  was  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  obtaming  its  im- 
mediate repeal. 

Therefore  any  idea  of  expelling  Mr.  Salomons  was  out  of 
the  question.  The  only  thing  that  could  be  done  was  to  set 
to  work  and  debate  the  matter.  Lord  John  Kussell  moved  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Salomons  be  ordered  to  with- 
draw. Lord  John  Eussell,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  was  entirely 
in  favour  of  the  admission  of  the  Jews,  but  thought  Mr. 
Salomons'  course  irregular.  Mr.  Bernal  Osborne  moved  an 
amendment  declarmg  Mr.  Salomons  entitled  to  take  his  seat.  A 
series  of  irregular  discussions,  varied  and  enlivened  by  motions 
for  adjournment,  took  place  ;  and  Mr.  Salomons  not  only  voted 
in  some  of  the  divisions,  but  actually  made  a  speech.  He 
Hpoke  calmly  and  well,  and  was  listened  to  with  great  attention. 
He  explained  that  in  the  course  he  had  taken  he  was  acting  in 
no  spirit  of  contumacy  or  presumption,  and  with  no  disregard 
for  the  dignity  of  the  House,  but  that  he  had  been  laAviuUy 
elected,  and  that  he  felt  bound  to  take  his  seat  for  the  purpose 
of  asserting  his  own  rights  and  those  of  his  constituents. 


CH.  XV.  THE   CONSPIRACY  BILL.  213 

He  intimated  also  that  he  would  withdraw  if  just  sufficient 
force  were  used  to  make  him  feel  that  he  was  acting  under 
coercion.  The  motion  that  he  be  ordered  to  withdraw  was 
carried.  The  Speaker  requested  Mr.  Salomons  to  withdraw. 
Mr.  Salomons  held  his  place.  The  Speaker  directed  the 
Sergeant-at-Arms  to  remove  Mr.  Salomons.  The  Sergeant- 
at-Arms  approached  Mr.  Salomons  and  touched  him  on  the 
Bhoulder,  and  Mr.  Salomons  then  quietly  withdrew.  The 
farce  was  over.  It  was  evident  to  everyone  that  Mr.  Salo- 
mons had  virtually  gained  the  victory,  and  that  some- 
thing must  soon  be  done  to  get  the  House  of  Commons  and 
the  country  out  of  the  difficulty. 

But  the  victory  was  not  technically  won  for  some  time 
after.  An  action  was  brought  against  Mr.  Salomons,  not  by 
the  Government,  in  December  1851,  to  recover  penalties  for 
his  having  unlawfully  taken  his  seat.  The  Court  of  Exchequer 
decided  by  three  voices  to  one  that  the  words  *  on  the  true 
faith  of  a  Christian  '  must  be  held  in  law  to  constitute  a 
specially  Christian  oath,  which  could  be  taken  by  no  one  but 
a  Christian,  and  without  taking  which  no  one  could  be  a 
Member  of  Parliament.  The  legal  question  then  being  settled, 
there  were  renewed  efforts  made  to  get  rid  of  the  disabilities 
by  an  Act  of  Parliament.  The  House  of  Commons  continued 
to  pass  Bills  to  enable  Jews  to  sit  in  Parliament,  and  the  House 
of  Lords  continued  to  throw  them  out.  Lord  John  Eussell,  who 
had  taken  charge  of  the  measure,  introduced  his  Bill  early  in 
1858.  When  it  came  up  to  the  House  of  Lords  it  suffered  the 
usual  fate.  Then  Lord  Lucan  recommended  the  insertion  of  a 
clause  in  the  Bill  allowing  either  House  to  modify  the  form  of 
oath  according  to  its  pleasure.  Lord  John  Russell  objected  to 
this  way  of  dealing  with  a  great  question,  but  did  not  feel  war- 
ranted in  refusing  the  proposed  compromise.  A  Bill  was  drawn 
up  with  the  clause  suggested,  and  it  was  carried  through  both 
Houses.  A  Jew,  therefore,  might  be  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  if  it  chose  to  receive  him,  and  might  be  shut  out 
of  the  House  of  Lords  if  that  House  did  not  think  fit  to  let 
him  in.  More  than  that,  the  House  of  Commons  might  change 
its  mind  at  any  moment,  and  by  modifying  the  form  of  oath 
Bhut  out  the  Jews  again ;  or  shut  out  any  new  Jewish  candi- 
dates. Of  course  such  a  condition  of  things  as  that  could  not 
endure.  An  Act  passed  not  long  after  which  consolidated  the 
Acts  referring  to  Oaths  of  Allegiance,  Abjuration,  and  Supre- 
macy, and  enabled  Jews  on  all  occasions  whatever  to  omit  the 


2J4        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,      cii.  xv. 

words  *  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian.*  Thus  the  Jew  wag 
at  last  placed  on  a  position  of  political  equality  with  his  Christian 
fellow- subjects,  and  an  anomaly  and  a  scandal  was  removed 
fi'om  our  legislation. 

About  the  same  time  as  that  which  saw  Baron  Eothschild 
admitted  to  take  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  absurd 
property  qualification  for  Members  of  Parliament  was  abolished. 
This  ridiculous  system  originally  professed  to  secure  that  no 
man  should  be  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  did 
not  own  a  certain  amount  of  landed  property.  It  had  not  the 
slightest  real  force.  Fictitious  conveyances  were  issued  as  a 
matter  of  course.  Anyone  who  desired  a  seat  in  Parliament 
could  easily  find  some  friend  or  patron  who  would  convey  to 
him  by  formal  deed  the  fictitious  ownership  of  landed  property 
enough  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  law.  As  usual  with 
Parliament,  this  anomaly  was  allowed  to  go  on  until  a  sudden 
scandal  made  its  abolition  necessary.  One  luckless  person, 
who  probably  had  no  position  and  few  friends,  was  actually 
prosecuted  for  having  made  a  false  declaration  as  to  his 
p^'operty  qualification.  Tiiis  practically  settled  the  matter. 
Everyone  knew  that  many  other  members  of  Parliament 
deserved  in  point  of  fact  just  as  well  as  he  the  three  months* 
imprisonment  to  which  he  was  sentenced.  Mr.  Locke  King 
introduced  a  Bill  to  abolish  the  property  qualification  hitherto 
required  from  the.  representatives  of  English  and  Irish  con« 
Btituencies,  and  it  became  law  in  a  few  days, 


CHAPTER  XVL 

DISEAELl'S   FIRST   KEFOEM  ENTERPEISB. 

% 

When  Lord  Ellenborough  abruptly  resigned  the  place  of 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control  he  was  succeeded  by  Lord 
Stanley,  who,  as  we  have  seen  already,  became  Secretary  of 
■State  for  India  under  the  new  system  of  government.  Lord 
Stanley  had  been  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  and  in  this  office 
he  was  succeeded  by  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton.  For  some 
time  previously  Sir  Edward  Lytton  had  been  takuig  so  marked 
a  place  in  Parliamentary  life  as  to  make  it  evident  that  when 
his  party  came  into  power,  he  was  sure  to  have  a  chance  ot' 
distinguishing  himself  in  ofiico.      His  political   career  had 


JH.  XVI.     DISRAELVS  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE,         215 

up  to  this  time  been  little  better  than  a  failure.  He  started 
in  public  life  as  a  Eaclical  and  a  friend  of  O'Connell ;  he  was 
indeed  the  means  of  introducing  Mr.  Disraeli  to  the  leader  of 
the  Irish  party.  He  began  his  Parliamentary  career  before 
the  Eeform  Bill.  He  was  elected  for  St.  Ives  in  1831.  After 
the  passing  of  the  Bill,  he  represented  Lincoln  for  several 
years.  At  the  general  election  of  1841  he  lost  his  seat,  and 
it  was  not  until  July  1852  that  he  was  again  returned  to 
Parliament.  This  time  he  came  in  as  member  for  the  county 
of  Herts.  In  the  interval  Lytton  had  succeeded  to  wealth  and 
to  landed  estates,  and  he  had  almost  altogether  changed  his 
political  opinions.  From  a  poetic  Eadical  he  had  become  a 
poetic  Conservative.  It  was  certain  that  whatever  Lytlon 
attempted  he  would  in  the  end  carry  to  some  considerable 
success.  His  first  years  in  the  House  oi  Commons  had  come 
to  nothing.  When  he  lost  his  seat  most  people  fancied  that 
he  had  accepted  defeat,  and  had  turned  his  back  on  Parlia- 
mentary life  for  ever.  But  Lytton  possessed  a  marvellously 
strong  will,  and  had  a  faith  in  himself  which  almost  amounted 
to  genius.  He  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would 
compel  the  world  to  confess  him  capable  of  playing  the  part  of 
a  politician.  He  was  deaf,  and  his  articulation  was  so  defective 
that  most  persons  who  heard  him  speak  in  public  for  the  first 
time  found  themselves  unable  to  understand  him.  Such 
difficulties  would  assuredly  have  scared  any  ordinary  man  out  of 
the  Parliamentary  arena  for  ever.  But  Lytton  seems  to  have 
determined  that  he  would  make  a  figure  in  Parliament.  He 
set  himself  to  public  speaking  as  coolly  as  if  he  were  a  man, 
like  Gladstone  or  Bright,  whom  nature  had  marked  out  for 
such  a  competition  by  her  physical  gifts.  He  became  a 
decided,  and  even  in  a  certain  sense,  a  great  success.  He 
could  not  strike  into  a  debate  actually  going  on ;  his  defects 
of  hearing  shut  him  off  from  such  a  performance ;  and  no 
man  who  is  not  a  debater  will  ever  hold  a  really  high  position 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  But  he  could  review  a  previous 
night's  arguments  in  a  speech  abounding  in  splendid  phrases 
and  brilliant  illustrations.  He  could  pass  for  an  orator.  He 
actually  did  pass  for  an  orator. 

Sir  Edward  Lytton,  as  Secretary  of  the  Colonies,  seemed 
resolved  to  prove  by  active  and  original  work  that  he  could  be 
a  practical  colonial  statesman  as  well  as  a  novelist,  a  play- 
wright, and  a  Parliamentary  orator.  He  founded  the  Colony 
of  British  Columbia.     He  sent  Mr.  Gladstone  on  a  mission  to 


2i6       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.       cii.  xvi. 

the  Ionian  Islands.  There  had  long  been  dissatisfaction  and 
even  disturbance  in  the  Ionian  Islands.  These  seven  islands 
were  constituted  a  sort  of  republic  or  commonwealth  by  the 
Treaty  of  Vienna.  But  they  were  consigned  to  the  Protec- 
torate of  Great  Britain,  which  had  the  right  of  maintaining 
garrisons  in  them.  It  seems  almost  a  waste  of  words  to  say 
that  the  islanders  were  not  content  with  British  government. 
For  good  or  ill,  the  Hellenes  wherever  they  are  found  are  sure 
to  be  filled  with  an  impassioned  longing  for  Hellenic  indejpen- 
dence.  The  people  of  the  Ionian  Islands  were  eager  to  be 
allowed  to  enter  into  one  system  with  the  kingdom  of  Greece. 
Their  national  principles  and  aspirations,  their  personal 
vanities,  their  truly  Greek  restlessness  and  craving  for 
novelty,  all  combined  to  make  them  impatient  of  that  foreign 
protectorate  which  was  really  foreign  government.  ]\Iany 
English  public  men,  hoAvever,  were  merely  angry  with  these 
pestilential  Greeks  who  did  not  know  what  was  good  for  them. 
Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton  had  not  been  long  enough  in  office 
to  have  become  soaked  in  the  ideas  of  routine.  He  thought 
the  causes  of  the  complaints  and  the  dissatisfaction  were  well 
worth  looking  into.  He  offered  therefore  to  Mr.  Gladstono 
the  office  of  Lord  High  Commissioner  Extraordinary  to  the 
Ionian  Islands,  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  had  been  for  some 
years  out  of  office,  acting  as  an  independent  supporter  of  Lord 
Palmerston's  Government,  accepted  the  oifer  and  its  duties. 
The  appointment  created  much  surprise,  some  anger,  and  a 
good  deal  of  ridicule  here  at  home.  Sir  Edward  Bulwer 
Lytton  had  alluded  in  his  despatch  to  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Homeric  scholarship,  and  this  was,  in  the  opinion  of  somo 
politicians,  an  outrage  upon  all  the  principles  and  proprieties 
of  routine.  This,  it  was  muttered,  is  what  comes  of  literary 
men  in  office.  A  writer  of  novels  is  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  he  has  another  writer  of  novels  at  his  side  as 
Colonial  Secretary,  and  between  them  they  can  think  of 
nothinsr  better  than  to  send  a  man  out  to  the  Ionian  Islands 
to  listen  to  the  trash  of  Greek  demagogues,  merely  because 
he  happens  to  be  fond  of  reading  Homer. 

Mr.  Gladstone  went  out  to  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  arrived 
at  Corfu  in  November  of  1858.  He  called  together  the 
Senate,  and  explained  that  he  had  not  come  there  to  discuss 
the  propriety  of  maintaining  the  English  protectorate,  but  only 
to  inquire  into  the  manner  in  which  the  just  claims  of  the  Ionian 
Islands  might  be  secured  by  means  of  that  protectorate.     The 


cii.  XVI.     DISRAELFS  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE.         217 

population  of  the  islands  however  persisted  in  regarding  him, 
not  as  the  commissioner  of  a  conservative  English  Govern- 
ment, but  as  '  Gladstone  the  Philhellene.'  In  vain  he  repeated 
his  assm'ances  that  he  came  to  reconcile  the  islands  to  the 
protectorate,  and  not  to  deliver  them  from  it.  The  popular 
instinct  insisted  on  regarding  him  as  at  least  the  precursor  of 
their  union  to  the  kingdom  of  Greece.  The  National  Assembly- 
passed  a  formal  resolution  declaring  for  union  with  Greece. 
All  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  persuasions  could  do  was  to  induce 
them  to  appoint  a  committee,  and  draw  up  a  memorial  to  be 
presented  in  proper  form  to  the  protecting  powers.  In  England 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  attacked  in  an  absurd  manner.  He  was 
accused  not  merely  of  having  encouraged  the  pretensions  of 
the  Ionian  Islanders,  but  even  talked  of  as  if  he,  and  he  alone, 
had  been  their  inspiration.  National  complacency  could 
hardly  push  sensible  men  to  greater  foolishness  than  it  did 
when  it  set  half  England  wondering  and  raging  over  the  im- 
pertinence of  a  Greek  population  who  preferred  union  with  a 
Greek  kingdom  to  dependence  upon  an  English  protectorate. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  people  of  the  islands  had  under 
England's  protectorate  admirable  means  of  communication  by 
land  and  sea,  splendid  harbours,  regular  lines  of  steamers, 
excellent  roads  everywhere,  while  the  people  of  the  kingdom 
of  Greece  were  hardly  better  off  for  all  these  advantages  under 
Otho  than  they  might  have  been  under  Codrus.  But  the 
populations  of  the  islands  persevered  in  the  belief  that  they 
understood  better  what  made  them  happy  than  anyone  else 
could  do.  They  agitated  more  strenuously  than  ever  for 
annexation  to  the  kingdom  of  Greece.  A  few  years  after 
their  wish  was  granted.  The  Greeks  got  rid  quietly  of  their 
heavy  German  king  Otho,  and  on  the  advice  chiefly  of  England 
they  elected  as  sovereign  a  brother  of  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
the  second  son  of  the  King  of  Denmark.  Then  Lord  John 
Russell,  on  behalf  of  the  English  Government,  handed  over 
the  Ionian  islands  to  the  kingdom  of  Greece. 

The  year  that  followed  Mr.  Gladstone's  mission  to  the 
Ionian  islands  (1859)  was  one  of  storm  and  stress  on  the 
European  continent.  It  began  with  the  memorable  declara- 
tion of  the  Emperor  of  the  French  to  the  Austrian  Ambassador 
at  the  Tuileries,  that  the  relations  between  the  two  Empires 
were  not  such  as  he  could  desire.  In  fact  Count  Cavour  had 
had  his  way.  He  had  prevailed  upon  Louis  Napoleon  to  expel 
the  Austrians  from  Italy.     In  the  career  of  Count  Cavour  our 

10 


2i8  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     CH,  xvi. 

times  have  seen  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  ilhistration  of 
that  great  Itahan  statesmanship  which  has  always  appeared 
at  intervals  in  the  history  of  Europe.  Louis  Napoleon  was 
simply  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  such  a  man.  When  once 
the  French  Emperor  had  entered  into  a  compact  with  him 
there  was  no  escape  from  it.  Cavour  did  not  look  like  au 
Italian ;  at  least  a  typical  Italian.  He  looked  more  like  an 
Englishman.  He  reminded  Englishmen  oddly  of  Dickens's 
Pickwick,  with  his  large  forehead,  his  general  look  of  moony 
good-nature,  and  his  spectacles.  That  commonplace  homely 
exterior  concealed  unsurpassed  force  of  character,  subtlety  of 
scheming,  and  power  of  will.  Cavour  had  determined  that 
France  should  fight  Austria.  The  war  was  over,  one  might 
say,  in  a  moment.  Austria  had  no  generals ;  the  French  army 
rushed  to  success  ;  and  then  Louis  Napoleon  stopped  short  as 
suddenly  as  he  had  begun.  He  had  proclaimed  that  he 
went  to  war  to  set  Italy  free  from  the  Alps  to  the  sea  ;  but  he 
made  peace  on  the  basis  of  the  liberation  of  Lombardy  from 
Austrian  rule,  and  he  left  Venetia  for  another  day  and  for 
other  arms.  He  drew  back  before  the  very  serious  danger 
that  threatened  on  the  part  of  the  German  States,  who 
showed  ominous  indications  of  a  resolve  to  make  the  cause  of 
Austria  their  own  if  France  went  too  far.  He  held  his  hand 
from  Venetia  because  of  Prussia;  seven  years  later  Prussia 
herself  gave  Venetia  to  Italy. 

The  English  Government  had  made  futile  attempts  to 
prevent  the  outbreak  of  war.  Meanwhile  the  Conservative 
Government  could  not  exactly  live  on  the  mere  reputation  oi 
having  given  good  advice  abroad  to  which  no  one  would  listen, 
and  they  determined  to  try  their  hand  at  a  Eeform  Bill.  Mr. 
Disraeli,  as  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  knew  that  a 
Eeform  Bill  was  one  of  the  certainties  of  the  future,  and 
that  whenever  Lord  John  Eussell  happened  to  be  in  power 
again  he  would  return  to  his  first  love  in  politics,  a 
Eeform  Bill.  He  knew  also  that  a  refusal  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  reiorm  would  always  expose  the  Tories  in 
ofiice  to  a  coalition  of  all  the  Liberal  factions  against 
them.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  to  choose  between  two  dangers.  He 
might  risk  all  by  refusing  reform  ;  he  might  risk  all  by  at- 
tempting reiorm.  He  thought  on  the  whole  the  wiser  course 
would  be  to  endeavour  to  take  possession  of  the  reiorm  question 
for  himself  and  liis  party.  The  reappearance  Ox  Mr.  Briglit 
in  politics  stimulated  no  doubt  this  resolve  on  the  part  of  Me. 


CH.  XVI.     D ISRAELI'S  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE.        2.1^ 

Disraeli.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  Prime  Minister,  Lord 
Derby,  took  any  active  interest  in  the  matter.  Lord  Derby 
had  outlived  political  ambition,  or  he  had  had  perhaps 
all  the  political  success  he  cared  for.  He  had  station  of 
the  highest ;  he  had  wealth  and  influence ;  he  had  fame  as 
a  great  Parliamentary  debater.  Now  that  Brougham  had 
ceased  to  take  any  leading  part  in  debate  he  had  no  rival  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  He  was  a  sincere  man  without  any 
pretence ;  and,  if  he  did  not  himself  care  about  reform,  he 
was  not  likely  to  put  on  any  appearance  of  enthusiasm  about 
it.  Nor  did  he  set  much  store  on  continuing  in  office.  He 
would  be  the  same  Lord  Derby  out  of  office  as  in.  But  this 
way  ot  looking  at  things  was  by  no  means  suitable  to  his 
energetic  and  ambitious  lieutenant.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  not 
nearly  attained  the  height  of  his  ambition,  nor  had  he  by  any 
means  exliausted  his  political  energies.  Mr.  Disraeli,  there- 
fore, was  not  a  man  to  view  with  any  satisfaction  the  conse- 
quences likely  to  come  to  the  Conservative  party  from  an  open 
refasal  to  take  up  the  cause  of  reform.  At  a  time  too  when 
most  of  the  Conservatives,  and  not  a  few  of  the  Whigs, 
regarded  Mr.  Bright  as  only  an  eloquent  and  respectable 
demagogue,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
Lancashire  orator  was  a  man  of  genius  and  foresight,  who 
must  be  taken  account  of  as  a  genuine  political  power.  Mr. 
Bright  had  for  a  long  time  been  withdrawn  by  ill-health  from 
all  share  in  political  agitation,  or  politics  of  any  kind.  He 
now  returned  to  public  life.  He  flung  himself  into  a  new 
agitation  for  reform,  and  he  was  induced  to  draw  up  a  Eeform 
Bill  of  his  own.  It  was  practically  a  proposal  to  establish  a 
franchise  precisely  like  that  which  we  have  now,  ballot  and  all, 
only  that  it  threw  the  expenses  of  the  returning  officer  on  the 
county  or  borough  rate,  and  it  introduced  a  somewhat  large 
measure  of  redistribution  of  seats. 

Mr.  Disraeli  knew  well  enough  that  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  cared  very  little  about  a  new  Eeform  Bill.  But  it  was 
evident  that  any  political  party  could  appeal  to  the  support  of 
the  working- classes  throughout  the  country  in  favour  of  any 
movement  which  promised  reform.  In  short,  Mr.  Disraeli 
knew  that  reform  had  to  come  some  time,  and  he  was 
resolved  to  make  his  own  game  if  he  could.  This  time, 
however,  he  was  not  successful.  The  difficulties  in  his 
way  were  too  great.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for 
him  to  introduce  such  a  Eeform  Bill  as  Mr.  Bright  would 


220         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xvr. 

be  likely  to  accept.  His  own  party  would  not  endure  such  a 
proposition.  Mr.  Disraeli's  Reform  Bill  was  a  curiosity.  It 
offered  a  variety  of  little  innovations  which  nobody  wanted  or 
could  have  cared  about,  and  it  left  out  of  sight  altogether  the 
one  reform  which  alone  gave  an  excuse  for  any  legislation. 
Lord  Grey's  Reform  Bill  admitted  the  middle-class  to  legislation 
but  left  the  working-class  out.  What  was  now  wanted  was  a 
measure  to  let  the  working-class  in.  Yet  Mr.  Disraeli's  scheme 
made  no  more  account  of  the  working-class  as  a  whole  than  if 
tliey  already  possessed  the  vote — every  man  of  them.  The 
English  working-classes  cried  out  for  the  franchise,  and  Mr. 
Disraeli  proposed  to  answer  the  cry  by  giving  the  vote  to 
graduates  of  universities,  medical  practitioners,  and  school- 
masters. 

^  Yet  we  may  judge  of  the  difficulties  Mr.  Disraeli  had  to 
deal  wdth  by  the  reception  which  even  this  poor  little  measure 
met  with  from  some  of  his  own  colleagues.  Mr.  Walpole  and 
Mr.  Henley  resigned  office  rather  than  have  anything  to  do  with 
it.  Mr.  Henley  was  a  specimen  of  the  class  who  might  have 
been  described  as  fine  old  English  gentlemen.  He  was  shrewd, 
blunt,  and  honest,  given  to  broad  jokes  and  to  a  high-flavoured 
old-fashioned  school  of  humour.  Mr.  Walpole  was  a  man  of 
gentle  bearing,  not  by  any  means  a  robust  politician,  nor 
liberally  endowed  with  intellect  or  eloquence,  but  pure-minded 
and  upright  enough  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting.  It  did  not 
appear  to  him  honourable  to  support  a  measure  because  it  had 
been  taken  up  by  one's  own  party,  which  the  party  would 
assuredly  have  denounced  and  opposed  to  the  uttermost  if  it 
had  been  brought  forward  by  the  other  side.  Public  opinion 
admired  Mr.  Walpole,  and  applauded  his  decision.  Public 
opinion  would  have  pronounced  even  more  strongly  in  his  favour 
had  it  known  that  at  the  time  of  his  making  this  decision  and 
withdrawing  from  a  high  official  position  Mr.  W^alpole  was  in 
circumstances  which  made  the  possession  of  a  salary  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  him.  Had  he  even  swallowed  his  scruples 
and  held  on  a  little  longer,  he  would  have  become  entitled  to 
a  pension.  He  did  not  appear  to  have  hesitated  a  moment. 
He  was  a  high-minded  gentleman  ;  he  could  very  well  bear  to 
be  poor  ;  he  could  not  bear  to  surrender  his  self-respect. 

Mr.  Disraeli's  ingenious  Reform  Bill  was  found  out  in  a 
moment.  Someone  described  its  enfranchising  clauses  as 
*  fancy  franchises  ; '  Mr.  Bright  introduced  the  phrase  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  clauses  never  recovered  the 


CH.  XVI.     DISRAELPS  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE.        221 

epithet.  It  would  be  useless  to  ^o  into  any  of  the  discussions 
which  took  place  on  this  extraordinary  Bill.  It  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  been  considered  seriously.  It  had  to  be  got 
rid  of  somehow,  and  therefore  Lord  John  Eussell  moved  an 
amendment,  declaring  that  no  readjustment  of  the  franchise 
would  satisfy  the  House  of  Commons  or  the  country  which  did 
not  provide  for  a  greater  extension  of  the  suffrage  in  cities  and 
boroughs  than  was  contemplated  in  the  Government  measure. 
Lord  John  Eussell' s  resolution  was  cari'ied  by  330  votes 
against  291,  or  a  majority  of  39.  The  Government  dissolved 
Parliament,  and  appealed  to  the  country.  The  elections 
took  place  during  the  most  critical  moments  of  the  war 
between  France  and  Austria.  While  such  news  was  arriving 
as  that  of  the  defeat  of  Magenta,  the  defeat  of  Solferino,  the 
entrance  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French  and  the  King  of  Sar- 
dinia into  Milan,  it  was  not  likely  that  domestic  news  of  a 
purely  parliamentary  interest  could  occupy  all  the  attention  of 
Englishmen.  To  many  the  strength  of  the  Austrian  military 
system  had  seemed  the  great  bulwark  of  Conservatism  in 
Europe ;  and  now  that  was  gone,  shrivelled  like  a  straw  in 
fire,  shattered  like  a  potsherd.  In  such  a  condition  of  things 
the  general  election  passed  over  hardly  noticed.  When  it  was 
over,  it  was  found  that  the  Conservatives  had  gained  indeed, 
but  had  not  gained  nearly  enough  to  enable  them  to  hold 
office,  unless  by  the  toleration  of  their  rivals.  The  rivals  soon 
made  up  their  minds  that  they  had  tolerated  them  long  enough. 
A  meeting  of  the  Liberal  party  was  held  at  Willis's  Eooms  to 
arrange  on  some  plan  of  united  action.  Lord  Palmerston 
represented  one  section  of  the  party.  Lord  John  Eussell 
another.  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  spoke  for  the  Peelites.  Not  a 
few  persons  were  surprised  to  find  Mr.  Bright  among  the 
speakers.  It  was  well  known  that  he  liked  Lord  Palmerston 
little  ;  that  it  could  hardly  be  said  he  liked  the  Tories  any  less. 
But  Mr.  Bright  was  for  a  Eeform  Bill,  from  whomsoever  it 
should  come ;  and  he  thought,  perhaps,  that  the  Liberal 
chiefs  had  learned  a  lesson.  The  party  contrived  to  agree 
upon  a  principle  of  action,  and  a  compact  was  entered  into,  the 
effect  of  which  was  soon  made  clear  at  the  meeting  of  the  new 
Parliament.  A  vote  of  want  of  confidence  was  at  once  moved 
by  the  Marquis  of  Hartington,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  and  even  then  marked  out  by  common  report  as  a 
future  leader  of  the  Liberal  party.  Lord  Hartington  had  sat 
but  a  short  time  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  did  not 


222        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMFS.      CH.  xvi. 

then,  nor  for  many  years  afterwards,  show  any  greater  capacity 
for  politics  than  is  shown  by  an  ordinary  county  member. 
Nothing  could  more  effectively  illustrate  one  of  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  English  political  system  than  the  choice  of  the 
Marquis  of  Hartington  as  the  figurehead  of  this  important 
movement  against  the  Tory  Government.  He  was  put  up  to 
move  the  vote  of  want  of  confidence  as  the  heir  of  the  great 
Whig  house  of  Devonshire  ;  his  appearance  in  the  debate  would 
have  carried  just  as  much  significance  with  it  if  he  had  sim]3ly 
moved  his  resolution  without  an  accompanying  word.  The 
debate  that  followed  was  long  and  bitter.  It  was  enlivened  by 
more  than  even  the  usual  amount  of  personalities.  Mr.  Dis- 
raeli and  Sir  James  Graham  had  a  sharp  passage  of  arms,  in 
the  course  of  which  Sir  James  Graham  used  an  expression 
that  has  been  often  quoted  since.  He  described  Mr.  Disraeli 
as  *  the  Eed  Indian  of  debate,'  who,  '  by  the  use  of  the  toma- 
hawk, had  cut  his  way  to  power,  and  by  recurrence  to  the 
scalping  system  hopes  to  prevent  the  loss  of  it.'  The  scalp- 
ing system,  however,  did  not  succeed  this  time.  The  division, 
when  it  came  on  after  three  nights  of  discussion,  showed  a 
majority  of  13  in  favour  of  Lord  Hartington's  motion. 

The  Queen  invited  Lord  Granville  to  form  a  Ministry. 
Lord  Granville  was  still  a  young  man  to  be  Prime  Minister, 
considering  how  much  the  habits  of  Parliamentary  life  had 
changed  since  the  days  of  Pitt.  He  was  not  much  over  forty 
years  of  age.  He  had  filled  many  ministerial  offices,  however, 
and  had  an  experience  in  Parliament  which  may  be  said  to 
have  begun  with  his  majority.  After  some  nine  years  spent  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  death  of  his  father  called  him  in 
1846  to  the  House  of  Lords.  He  made  no  assumption  of 
commanding  abilities,  nor  had  he  any  pretence  to  the  higher 
class  of  eloquence  or  statesmanship.  But  he  was  a  thorough 
man  of  the  world  and  of  Parliament ;  he  understood  English 
ways  of  feeling  and  of  acting ;  he  was  a  clever  debater,  and 
had  the  genial  art — very  useful  and  very  rare  in  English  public 
life — 01  keeping  even  antagonists  in  good  humour.  The 
Queen  had  naturally  thought,  in  the  first  instance,  of  Lord 
Palmerston  and  Lord  John  Kussell ;  but  she  found  it  '  a  very 
invidious  and  unwelcome  task  '  to  make  a  choice  between  the 
two  statesmen.  Her  Majesty,  therefore,  thought  a  com- 
promise might  be  best  got  at  if  both  could  be  united  under 
the  guidance  of  Lord  Granville,  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
Liberal  party  in  the  House  of  Lords.    The  attempt  was  not 


CH.  XVI.     DISRAELIS  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE.         223 

successful.  Lord  John  Eussell  declined  to  serve  under  Lord 
Granville,  but  declared  himself  perfectly  willing  to  serve  under 
Lord  Palmer ston.  This  declaration  at  once  put  an  end  to  Lord 
Granville's  chances,  and  to  the  whole  difficulty  which  had  been 
anticipated.  Lord  Granville  was  not  in  the  slightest  degree 
impatient  to  become  Prime  Minister,  and  indeed  probably  felt 
relieved  from  a  very  unwelcome  responsibility  when  he  was 
allowed  to  accept  office  under  the  premiership  of  Lord 
Palmerston.  Lord  Palmerston  was  now  Prime  Minister  for 
life.  Until  his  death  he  held  the  office  with  the  full  approval 
of  Conservatives  as  well  as  Liberals  ;  nay,  indeed,  with  much 
warmer  approbation  from  the  majority  of  the  Conservatives 
than  from  many  of  the  Liberals. 

Palmerston  formed  a  strong  Ministry.  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  Lord  John  Eussell  had  the 
office  of  Foreign  Secretary;  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis  was  Home 
Secretary ;  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  Minister  for  War.  The  Duke 
of  Newcastle  took  charge  of  the  Colonies,  Mr.  Card  well 
accepted  the  Irish  Secretaryship,  and  Sir  Charles  Wood  was 
Secretary  for  Lidia.  Lord  Palmerston  endeavoured  to  pro- 
pitiate the  Manchester  Liberals  by  offering  a  seat  in  the 
Government  to  Mr.  Cobden  and  to  Mr.  Milner  Gibson.  Mr. 
Cobden  was  at  the  time  on  his  way  home  from  the  United 
States.  In  his  absence  he  had  been  elected  member  for  Eoch- 
dale  ;  and  in  his  absence,  too,  the  office  of  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  in  the  new  Ministry  had  been  put  at  his  dis- 
posal. His  friends  eagerly  awaited  his  return,  and,  when  the 
steamer  bringing  him  home  was  near  Liverpool,  a  number  of 
them  went  out  to  meet  him  before  his  landing.  They  boarded 
the  steamer,  and  astonished  him  with  the  news  that  the  Tories 
were  out,  that  the  Liberals  were  in,  that  he  was  member  for 
Eochdale,  and  that  Lord  Palmerston  had  offered  him  a  place 
in  the  new  Ministry.  Cobden  took  the  news  which  related 
to  himself  with  his  usual  quiet  modesty.  He  explained 
afterwards  that  the  office  put  at  his  disposal  was  exactly  that 
which  would  have  best  suited  him,  and  in  which  he  thought 
that  he  could  do  some  good.  He  also  declared  frankly  that  the 
salary  attached  to  the  office  would  be  a  consideration  of  much 
importance  to  him.  At  the  moment  he  was  a  poor  man.  Yet 
he  did  not  in  his  own  mind  hesitate  an  instant  about  Lord 
Palmerston' s  offer.  He  disapproved  of  Palmerston' s  foreign 
policy,  of  his  military  expenditure,  and  his  love  oi  interfermg 
in  the  disputes  of  the  Contment ;  and  he  ielt  that  he  could  not 


224         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.      CH.  XVI. 

conscientiously  accept  office  under  such  a  leader.  He  refused 
the  offer  decisively,  and  the  chief  promoter  of  the  repeal  of 
the  corn  laws  never  held  any  place  in  an  English  Administra- 
tion. Cobden,  however,  advised  his  friend,  Mr.  Milner  Gibson, 
to  avail  himself  of  Lord  Palmerston's  offer,  and  Mr.  Gibson,  who 
had  never  stood  out  before  the  country  in  s©  conspicuous  a  posi- 
tion as  an  opponent  of  Lord  Palmerston,  acted  on  the  advice. 

Lord  Palmerston  had  not  made  any  tender  of  office  to  Mr. 
Briglit ;  and  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bright  frankly  explaining  his 
reasons.  Mr.  Bright  had  been  speaking  out  too  strongly, 
during  his  recent  reform  campaign,  to  make  his  presence  in  the 
Cabinet  acceptable  to  some  of  the  Whig  magnates  for  whom 
seats  had  to  be  found.  It  is  curious  to  notice  now  the  convic- 
tion, which  at  that  time  seemed  to  be  universal,  that  Mr. 
Cobden  was  a  much  more  moderate  reformer  than  Mr.  Bright. 
The  impression  was  altogether  wrong.  There  was,  in  Mr. 
Bright's  nature,  a  certain  element  of  Conservatism  which 
showed  itself  clearly  enough  the  moment  the  particular  reforms 
which  he  thought  necessary  were  carried  ;  Mr.  Cobden  would 
have  gone  on  advancing  in  the  direction  of  reform  as  long  as 
he  lived.  Not  much  difference,  to  be  sure,  was  ever  to  be 
noticed  between  them  in  public  affairs.  But  where  there  was 
any  difference,  even  of  speculative  opinion,  Mr.  Cobden  went 
further  than  Mr.  Bright  along  the  path  of  Piadicalism. 

The  closing  days  of  the  year  were  made  memorable  by  the 
death  of  Macaulay.,  He  had  been  raised  to  the  peerage,  and 
had  had  some  hopes  of  being  able  to  take  occasional  part  in 
the  stately  debates  of  the  House  of  Lords.  But  his  health 
almost  suddenly  broke  down,  and  his  voice  was  never  heard  in 
the  Upper  Chamber.  He  died  prematurely,  having  only 
entered  on  his  sixtieth  year.  Macaulay  had  had,  as  he  often 
said  himself,  a  singularly  happy  life,  although  it  was  not  with- 
out its  severe  losses  and  its  griefs.  His  career  was  one  of 
uninterrupted  success.  His  books  brought  him  fame,  influence, 
social  position,  and  wealth,  all  at  once.  He  never  made  a 
failure.  The  world  only  applauded  one  book  more  than  the 
other,  the  second  speech  more  than  the  first.  Macaulay  the 
essayist,  Macaulay  the  historian,  Macaulay  the  ballad-writer, 
Macaulay  the  Parliamentary  orator,  Macaulay  the  brilliant,  in- 
exhaustible talker — he  was  alike,  it  might  appear,  supreme  in 
everything  he  chose  to  do  or  to  attempt.  Macaulay  was  undoubt- 
edly  a  great  literary  man.  He  w^as  also  a  man  of  singularly  noble 
character.    He  appears  to  have  enjoyed  advancement,  success, 


CH.  XVI.     DISRAELPS  FIRST  REFORM  ENTERPRISE.         225 

fame,  and  money  only  because  these  enabled  him  to  give  pleasure 
and  support  to^the  members  of  his  family.  He  was  attached  to 
his  family,  especially  to  his  sisters,  with  the  tenderest  affection. 
His  real  nature  seems  only  to  have  thoroughly  shone  out  when 
in  their  society.  There  he  was  loving,  sportive  even  to  joyous 
frolicsomeness ;  a  glad  schoolboy  alm.ost  to  the  very  end.  He 
was  remarkably  generous  and  charitable  even  to  strangers ; 
his  hand  was  almost  always  open  ;  but  he  gave  so  unostenta- 
tiously that  it  was  not  until  after  his  death  that  half  his  kindly 
deeds  became  known.  He  had  a  spirit  which  was  absolutely 
above  any  of  the  corrupting  temptations  of  money  or  rank. 
He  was  very  poor  at  one  time,  but  it  did  not  seem  to  have 
occnn^ed  to  him,  when  he  was  poor,  that  money  was  lacking  to 
the  dignity  of  his  intellect  and  his  manhood  ;  or  when  he  was 
rich  that  money  added  to  it.  He  had  certain  defects  of  temper 
and  manner  rather  than  of  character.  He  was  apt  to  b'vi 
overbearing  in  tone,  and  to  show  himself  a  little  too  confident 
of  his  splendid  gifts  and  acquirements  :  his  marvellous  memory, 
his  varied  reading,  his  overwhelming  power  of  argument.  He 
trampled  on  men's  prejudices  too  heedlessly,  was  inclined  to 
treat  ignorance  as  if  it  were  a  crime,  and  to  make  dulness  feel 
that  it  had  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  itself.  These  defects  only 
are  worth  mentioning  as  they  serve  to  explain  some  of  the  mis- 
conceptions which  were  formed  of  Macaulay  by  many  during 
his  lifetime,  and  some  of  the  antagonisms  which  he  uncon- 
sciously created.  Absolutely  without  literary  affectation,  un- 
depressed by  early  poverty,  unspoiled  by  later  and  almost 
unequalled  success,  he  w^as  an  independent,  quiet,  self-relying 
man  who,  in  all  his  noon  of  fame,  found  most  happiness  in  the 
companionship  and  the  sympathy  of  those  he  loved,  and  who, 
from  first  to  last,  was  loved  most  tenderly  by  those  who  knew 
him  best.  He  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  in  the  first 
week  of  the  new  year,  and  there  truly  took  his  place  among 
his  peers. 

CHAPTEE  XVII. 

LORD    PALMERSTON    AGAIN. 

When  Lord  Palmerston's  Ministry  came  into  power  a  pro- 
found distrust  of  Louis  Napoleon  prevailed  almost  everywhere. 
The  fact  that  he  had  been  recently  our  ally  did  not  do  much 
to  diminish  this  distrust.  On  the  contrary,  it  helped  in  a 
10^ 


226         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xvil. 

certain  sense  to  increase  it.  It  was  to  have  his  revenge  for 
Moscow  and  the  Beresina,  people  said,  that  he  struck  at 
Russia ;  and  he  made  us  his  mere  tools  in  tlie  enterprise. 
Now  he  turns  upon  Austria,  to  make  her  atone  for  other 
wrongs  done  against  the  ambition  of  the  Bonapartes ;  and  he 
has  conquered.    What  next  ?    Prussia  perhaps — or  England  ? 

The  invasion  panic  sprang  up  again  here  in  a  moment.  The 
volunteer  forces  began  to  increase  in  numbers  and  in  ardour. 
Plans  of  coast  fortification  and  of  national  defences  generally 
were  thrust  upon  Parliament  from  various  quarters.  A  feverish 
anxiety  about  the  security  of  the  island  took  possession  of 
many  minds  that  were  usually  tranquil  and  shrewd  enough. 
The  venerable  Lord  Lyndhurst  devoted  himself  to  the  work  of 
inflaming  the  public  spirit  of  England  against  Louis  Napoleon 
with  a  vigour  of  manner  and  a  literary  freshness  of  style  well 
worthy  of  his  earlier  and  best  years.  Up  to  this  time  there 
was  no  evidence  in  the  public  opinion  of  England  of  any 
sympathy  with  Italian  independence  such  as  became  the 
fashion  a  year  later.  The  King  of  Sardinia,  Victor  Emanuel, 
had  visited  England  not  long  before,  and  had  been  received 
with  public  addresses  and  other  such  demonstrations  of 
admiration  here  and  there ;  but  he  had  not  succeeded  in 
securing  the  general  sympathy  of  the  English  public. 

The  Ministry  attempted  great  things.  They  undertook  a 
complete  remodelling  of  the  Customs  system,  a  repeal  of  the 
paper  duties,  and  a  Reform  Bill.  The  news  that  a  commercial 
treaty  with  France  was  in  preparation  broke  on  the  world 
somewhat  abruptly  in  the  early  days  of  18G0.  The  arrange- 
ment was  made  in  a  manner  to  set  old  formalism  everywhere 
shaking  its  solemn  head  and  holding  up  its  alarmed  hands. 
The  French  treaty  was  made  without  any  direct  assistance 
from  professional  diplomacy.  It  was  made  indeed  in  despite  of 
professional  diplomacy.  It  was  the  result  of  private  conversa- 
tions and  an  informal  agreement  between  the  Emperor  of  the 
French  and  Mr.  Cobden.  Although  Mr.  Cobden  had  never 
held  official  position  of  any  kind  in  England,  the  Emperor 
received  him  very  cordially  and  entered  readily  into  his  ideas 
on  the  subject  of  a  treaty  between  England  and  France,  which 
should  remove  many  of  the  prohibitions  and  restrictions  then 
interfering  with  a  liberal  interchange  of  the  productions  of  the 
two  nations.  Napoleon  the  Third  was  a  free-trader,  or  some- 
thing nearly  approaching  to  it.  His  cousin.  Prince  Napoleon, 
was  still  more  advanced  and  more  decided  in  his  views  of 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERS  TON  AGAIN,  227 

political  economy.  The  Emperor  was,  moreover,  a  good  deal 
mider  the  influence  of  the  distinguished  French  economist 
Michel  Chevalier.  Mr.  Cobden  had  the  assistance  of  all  the 
influence  Mr.  Gladstone  could  bring  to  bear.  It  is  not  likely 
that  Lord  Palmerston  cared  much  about  the  French  treaty 
project,  but  at  least  he  did  not  oppose  it.  There  were  many 
difficulties  m  the  way  on  both  sides.  The  French  people 
and  the  French  manufacturing  bodies  were  for  the  most  part 
opposed  to  the  principles  of  free  trade.  So  were  some  of 
the  most  influential  politicians  of  the  country.  M.  Thiers 
was  an  almost  impassioned  Protectionist.  The  Emperor 
of  the  French  had  to  enter  into  the  engagement  by  virtue 
of  his  Imperial  will  and  power,  and  a  strong  objection  was 
felt  in  this  country  just  then  to  any  friendly  negotiation  or 
arrangement  whatever  with  Louis  Napoleon.  As  soon  as  it 
became  known  that  the  treaty  was  in  course  of  negotiation  a 
storm  of  indignation  broke  out  m  this  country.  Not  only  the  / 
Conservative  party  but  a  large  portion  of  the  Liberals  con- 
demned and  denounced  the  proposed  agreement,  but  the 
eloquence  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  strength  of  the  Govern- 
ment prevailed  against  them  all.  The  effect  of  the  treaty,  so 
far  as  France  was  concerned,  was  an  engagement  virtually  to 
remove  all  prohibitory  duties  on  all  the  staples  of  British  \ 
manufacture,  and  to  reduce  the  duties  on  English  coal  and  I 
coke,  bar  and  pig  iron,  tools,  machinery,  yarns,  flax,  and  / 
hemp.  England,  for  her  part,  proposed  to  sweep  away  all 
duties  on  manufactured  goods,  and  to  reduce  greatly  the  duties 
on  foreign  wines. 

Mr.  Gladstone  not  only  succeeded  in  carrying  this  part 
of  his  Budget,  but  he  carried,  too,  as  far  as  the  House  oi 
Commons  was  concerned,  his  important  measure  for  the 
abolition  of  the  duty  on  paper.  The  stamp  duty  was  originally  ' 
imposed  with  the  object  of  checking  the  growth  of  seditious 
newspapers.  It  was  reduced,  increased,  reduced  again,  and 
increased  again,  until  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  it  stood 
at  fourpence  on  each  copy  of  a  newspaper  issued.  Li  183G  it 
was  brought  down  to  the  penny,  represented  by  a  red  stamp 
on  every  paper.  There  was  besides  this  a  considerable  duty 
- — sixpence,  or  some  such  sum — on  every  advertisement  in  a 
newspaper.  Finally,  there  was  the  heavy  duty  on  the  paper 
material  itself.  The  consequence  was  that  a  newspaper  was 
a  costly  thing.  Its  possession  was  the  luxury  of  the  rich  ;  those 
who  could  afford  less  had  to  be  content  with  an  occasional  read 


228        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.  CH.  xvii. 

of  a  paper.  It  was  common  for  a  nmiiber  of  persons  to  club 
together  and  take  in  a  paper,  which  they  read  by  tmiis,  the 
general  miderstanding  being  that  he  whose  turn  came  last 
remained  the  owner  of  the  jom^nal.  It  was  considered  a  fair 
compensation  for  his  late  reception  of  the  news  that  he  should 
come  into  the  full  proprietorship  of  the  precious  newspaper. 
The  price  of  a  daily  paper  then  was  uniformly  sixpence  ;  and  no 
sixpenny  paper  contained  anything  like  the  news,  or  went  to  a 
tenth  of  the  daily  expense,  which  is  supplied  in  the  one  case  and 
undertaken  in  the  other  by  the  penny  papers  of  our  day. 
Gradually  the  burthens  on  journalism  and  on  the  reading  public 
were  reduced.  The  advertisement  duty  was  abolished  ;  in  1855 
the  stamp  duty  was  abolished  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  stamp  was 
either  removed  altogether,  or  was  allowed  to  stand  as  postage. 
On  the  strength  of  this  reform  many  new  and  cheap  journals 
were  started.  But  it  became  painfully  evident  that  a  news- 
paper could  not  be  sold  profitably  for  a  penny  while  the  duty 
on  the  paper-material  remained.  A  powerful  agitation  was 
set  on  foot  for  its  removal,  not  on  behalf  of  the  interests  of 
newspaper  speculation,  but  on  behalf  of  the  reading  public 
and  of  the  education  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Gladstone  undertook  the  congenial  task  of  abolishing 
the  duty  on  paper.  He  was  met  with  strong  opposition  from 
both  sides  of  the  House.  The  paper  manufacturers  made  it 
at  once  a  question  of  protection  to  their  o^vn  trade.  Vested 
interests  in  the  newspaper  business  itself  also  opposed  Mr. 
Gladstone.  The  high-priced  and  well-established  journals 
did  not  by  any  means  relish  the  idea  of  cheap  and  unfettered 
competition.  A  good  many  men  were  induced  to  sustain  the 
cause  of  the  paper-making  and  journal-selling  monopoly. 
The  result  was  that  although  Mr.  Gladstone  carried  his 
resolutions  for  the  abolition  of  the  excise  on  paper,  he  only 
carried  them  by  dwindling  majorities.  The  second  reading 
was  carried  by  a  majority  of  53 ;  the  third  by  a  majority  of 
only  9.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  encourage  some  members 
of  the  House  of  Lords  to  attempt  the  taslf*  of  getting  rid  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  proposed  reform  altogether.  An  amendment 
to  reject  the  resolutions  repealing  the  tax  was  proposed  by 
Lord  Monteagle,  and  received  the  support  of  Lord  Derby  and 
of  Lord  Lyndhurst.  Lord  Lyndhurst  was  then  just  entering 
on  his  eighty-ninth  year.  His  growing  infirmities  made  it 
necessary  that  a  temporary  railing  should  be  constructed  in 
front  of  his  seat  in  order  that  he  mif^lit  lean  on  it  and  be 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERSTON  AG  Am,  229 

Gupported.  But  although  his  physical  strength  thus  needed 
Bupport  his  speech  gave  no  evidence  of  failing  intellect.  Even 
his  voice  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  lost  any  of  its  clear, 
light,  musical  strength.  The  question  which  the  House  of 
Lords  had  to  face  was  somev/hat  serious.  The  Commons  had 
repealed  a  tax ;  was  it  constitutionally  in  the  poAver  of  the 
House  of  Lords  to  reimpose  it  ?  Was  not  this,  it  w^as  asked, 
siraply  to  assert  for  the  House  of  Lords  a  taxing  power  equal 
to  that  of  the  Commons  ?  Was  it  not  to  reduce  to  nothing 
the  principle  that  taxation  and  representation  go  together  ? 
Lord  Lyndhurst  entered  into  a  long  and  a  very  telling  argu- 
ment to  show  that  although  the  peers  had  abandoned  their 
claim  to  alter  a  money  bill,  they  had  still  a  right  to  refuse 
their  assent  to  a  repeal  of  taxation,  and  that  in  this  par- 
ticular instance  they  were  justified  in  doing  so.  The  Conserva- 
tive party  in  the  House  of  Lords  can  always  carry  any  division, 
and  they  were  resolved  to  show  that  they  could  do  some- 
thing. The  House  of  Lords  was  in  an  unusually  aggressive 
mood.  Mr.  Disraeli  in  one  of  his  novels  had  irreverently 
said  of  the  Lords,  that  when  the  peers  accomplish  a  division 
they  cackle  as  if  they  had  laid  an  ^gg.  On  this  occasion  tliey 
were  determined  to  have  a  division.  The  majority  against 
the  Government  was  overwhelming,  and  the  repeal  of  the 
excise  duty  on  paper  was  done  with  for  that  session. 

Lord  Palmerston  promptly  moved  in  the  House  of 
Commons  for  a  committee  to  ascertain  and  report  on  the 
practice  of  each  House  with  regard  to  the  several  descriptions 
of  Bills  imposing  or  repealing  taxes.  After  two  months  the 
committee  found  by  a  majority  of  fourteen  a  series  of  re- 
solutions to  the  effect  that  the  privilege  of  the  House  of 
Commons  did  not  extend  so  far  as  to  make  it  actually  un- 
constitutional for  the  Lords  to  reject  a  Bill  for  the  repeal  of  a 
tax.  Mr.  Bright,  who  was  a  member  of  the  committee,  did 
not  assent  to  this  principle.  He  prepared  a  draft  report  of 
his  own  in  which  he  contended  for  the  very  reasonable  view, 
that  if  the  Lords  might  prolong  or  reimpose  a  tax  by  refusing 
tlieir  assent  to  its  repeal  when  that  repeal  had  been  voted  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  House  of  Commons  could  not  be  said  to 
have  absolute  control  over  the  taxation  of  the  country.  The 
truth  is,  that  if  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  in 
favour  of  the  repeal  of  the  paper  duties  had  been  anything 
considerable,  the  House  of  Lords  would  never  have  ventured 
to  interfere.     Not  a  few  of  the  peers  felt  convinced  that  the 


230      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIV.V  TIMES.     CH.  xvil. 

majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  would  secretly  bless  tliero 
for  their  intervention.  Lord  Palmerston  followed  up  the 
report  of  the  committee  by  proposing  a  series  of  resolutions  to 
reaffirm  the  position  and  the  claims  of  the  House  of  Commons 
in  regard  to  questions  of  taxation.  Such  resolutions  were  not 
likely  to  satisfy  the  more  impatient  among  the  Liberals.  An 
appeal  was  made  to  the  people  generally  to  thunder  a  national 
protest  against  the  House  of  Lords.  But  the  country  did  not, 
it  must  be  owned,  respond  very  tumultuously  to  the  invitation. 
Great  public  meetings  were  held  in  London  and  the  large  towns 
of  the  North,  and  much  anger  was  expressed  at  the  conduct  of 
the  Lords.  Mr.  Bright  threw  his  eloquence  and  his  influence 
into  the  agitation,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  expressed  himself  strongly 
in  favour  of  its  object.  Yet  the  country  did  not  become 
greatly  excited  over  the  controversy.  It  did  not  even  enter 
warmly  into  the  question  as  to  the  necessity  of  abolishing 
the  House  of  Lords.  One  indignant  writer  insisted  that  if 
the  Lords  did  not  give  v/ay  the  English  people  would  turn 
them  out  of  Westminster  Palace,  and  strew  the  Thames  with 
the  wrecks  of  their  painted  chamber.  Language  such  as  this 
sounded  oddly  out  of  tune  with  the  temper  of  the  time.  The 
general  conviction  of  the  country  was  undoubtedly  that  the 
Lords  had  made  a  mistake,  and  that  it  would  certainly  be 
necessary  to  check  them  if  they  attempted  to  repeat  it. 
But  the  feeling  also  was  that  there  was  not  the  slightest 
chance  of  such  a  mistake  being  repeated.  The  mere  fact 
that  so  much  stir  had  been  made  about  it  was  enough  to 
secure  the  country  against  any  chance  of  its  passing  into  a 
precedent.  A  course  of  action  which  Mr.  Gladstone  denounced 
as  a  'gigantic  innovation,'  which  Lord  Palmerston  could  not 
approve,  which  the  Liberal  party  generally  condemned,  and 
which  the  House  of  Commons  made  the  occasion  of  a  signifi- 
cantly warning  resolution,  was  not  in  the  least  likely  to  be 
converted  by  repetition  into  an  established  principle  and  pre- 
cedent. This  was  the  reason  why  the  country  took  the  v^diole 
matter  with  comparative  indifference. 

The  whole  controversy  has  little  political  importance  now. 
Perhaps  it  is  most  interesting  for  the  evidence  it  gave  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  every  day  drifting  more  and  more  away  from 
the  opinions,  not  merely  of  his  old  Conservative  associates, 
but  even  of  his  later  Whig  colleagues.  The  position  which 
he  took  up  in  this  dispute  was  entirely  different  from  that  of 
Lord  Palmerston.     He  condemned  without  reserve  or  mitiga- 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERSTON  AGAIN.  231 

tion  the  conduct  of  the  Lords,  and  he  condemned  it  on  the 
very  grounds  which  made  his  words  most  welcome  to  the 
Eadicals.  The  first  decided  adhesion  of  Mr.  Gladstone  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  more  advanced  Liberals  is  generally  regarded 
as  having  taken  place  at  a  somewhat  later  period,  and  in 
relation  to  a  different  question.  It  would  seem,  however,  that 
the  earliest  intimation  of  the  course  Mr.  Gladstone  w^as 
thenceforward  to  tread  was  his  declaration  that  the  constitu- 
tional privileges  of  the  representative  assembly  would  not  be 
safe  in  the  hands  of  the  Conservative  Opposition.  Lord 
Palmer ston,  on  the  other  hand,  certainly  suffered  some  damage 
in  the  eyes  of  the  extreme  Liberals.  Still  Lord  Palmerston's 
resolutions  contained  in  them  quite  enough  to  prove  to  the 
Lords  that  they  had  gone  a  little  too  far,  and  that  they  must 
not  attempt  anything  of  the  kind  again.  A  story  used  to  be 
told  of  Lord  Palmerston  at  that  time  which  would  not  have 
been  out  of  character  if  it  had  been  true.  Some  one,  it  was 
said,  pressed  him  to  say  what  he  intended  to  do  about  the 
Lords  and  the  reimposition  of  the  paper  duties.  *  I  mean  to 
tell  them,'  was  the  alleged  reply  of  Lord  Palmerston,  '  that  it 
was  a  very  good  joke  for  once,  but  they  must  not  give  it  to  us 
again.'  This  was  really  the  effect  of  Palmerston's  resolutions. 
The  Lords  took  the  hint.  They  did  not  try  it  again.  Even 
in  that  year,  1860,  Mr.  Gladstone  was  able  to  carry  his  reso- 
lution for  removing,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
French  Treaty,  so  much  of  the  Customs  duty  on  imported 
paper  as  exceeded  the  Excise  duty  on  paper  made  here  at 
home. 

Meanwhile  the  Government  had  sustained  a  severe  humilia- 
tion in  another  way.  They  had  had  to  abandon  their  Eeform 
Bill.  The  Bill  was  a  moderate  and  simple  scheme  of  reform. 
It  proposed  to  lower  the  county  franchise  to  lOZ.,  and  that  of 
the  boroughs  to  6Z. ;  and  to  make  a  considerable  redistribution 
of  seats.  The  Bill  was  brought  in  on  March  1.  The  second 
reading  was  moved  on  March  19.  Mr.  Disraeli  condemned 
the  measure  then,  although  he  did  not  propose  to  offer  any 
opposition  to  it  at  that  stage.  He  made  a  long  and  laboured 
speech,  in  which  he  talked  ol  the  Bill  as  '  a  measure  of  a 
mediaeval  character,  without  the  inspiration  of  the  feudal 
system  or  the  genius  of  the  Middle  Ages.'  No  one  knew 
exactly  what  this  meant ;  but  it  was  loudly  applauded  by 
Mr.  Disraeli's  followers,  and  was  thought  rather  fine  by  some 
of  those  who  sat  on  the  Ministerial  side.     Long  nights  of 


232      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,    CH.  xvii. 

debate  more  or  less  languid  followed.  Mr.  Disraeli,  with  his 
usual  sagacity,  was  merely  waiting  to  see  how  things  w^ould 
go  before  he  committed  himself  or  his  party  to  any  decided 
opposition.  He  began  very  soon  to  see  that  there  was  no 
occasion  for  him  to  take  any  great  trouble  in  the  matter.  He 
and  his  friends  had  little  more  to  do  than  to  look  on  and  smile 
complacently  while  the  chances  of  the  Bill  were  being  hope- 
lessly undermined  by  some  of  the  followers  of  the  Government. 
The  milder  Whigs  hated  the  scheme  rather  more  than  the 
Tories  did.  Lord  Palmerston  was  well  known  to  be  personally 
indifferent  to  its  fate.  Lord  Palmerston  was  not  so  foreseeing 
as  Mr.  Disraeli.  The  leader  of  the  Opposition  knew  well 
enough  even  then  that  a  Keform  Bill  of  some  kind  would 
have  to  be  brought  in  before  long.  Mr.  Disraeli  probably  fore- 
saw even  then  that  it  might  be  convenient  to  his  own  party 
one  day  to  seek  for  the  credit  of  carrying  a  Eadical  Eeform 
Bill.  He  therefore  took  care  not  to  express  any  disapproval 
of  the  principles  of  reform  in  the  debates  that  took  place  on 
the  second  reading  of  Lord  John  Kussell's  Bill.  His  manner 
was  that  of  one  who  looks  on  scornfully  at  a  bungling  attempt 
to  do  some  piece  of  work  which  he  could  do  much  better  if  he 
had  a  chance  of  making  the  attempt. 

Meanwhile  the  Bill  was  drifting  and  floundering  on  to 
destruction.  If  Lord  Palmerston  had  spoken  one  determined 
word  in  its  favour  the  Conservatives  would  not  have  taken  on 
themselves  the  responsibility  of  a  prolonged  resistance,  and 
those  of  the  Liberals  who  secretly  detested  the  measure  would 
not  have  had  the  courage  to  stand  up  against  Lord  Palmerston. 
Very  soon  they  came  to  understand,  or  at  least  to  believe,  that 
Lord  Palmerston  would  be  rather  pleased  than  otherwise  to 
see  the  measure  brought  into  contempt.  Lord  Palmerston 
took  practically  no  part  in  the  debates.  He  did  actually  make 
a  speech  at  a  late  period ;  but,  as  Mr.  Disraeli  said  with  ad- 
mirable effect,  it  w^as  a  speech  not  so  much  *  in  support  of,  as 
about,  the  Eeform  Bill.'  Sir  George  Lewis  argued  for  the 
Bill  so  coldly  and  sadly  that  Sir  E.  B.  Lytton  brought  down 
the  laughter  and  cheers  of  both  sides  of  the  House  when  he 
described  Lewis  as  having  '  come  to  bury  Caesar,  not  to  praise 
him.'  The  measure  was  already  doomed:  it  was  virtually 
dead  and  buried.  Notice  was  given  of  amendment  after 
amendment,  chiefly  or  altogether  by  professing  Liberals.  The 
practice  of  obstructing  the  progress  of  the  Bill  by  incessant 
speech-making  waB  introduced  and  made  to  work  with  ominona 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERSTON  AGAIN.  233 

effect.  Some  of  the  more  boisterous  of  the  Tories  began  to 
treat  the  whole  thing  as  a  good  piece  of  fun.  Once  an  attempt 
was  made  to  get  the  House  counted  out  during  the  progress 
of  the  debate.  It  would  be  a  capital  means  of  reducing  the 
whole  discussion  to  an  absurdity,  some  members  thought,  if 
the  House  could  actually  be  counted  out  during  a  debate  on 
the  Keform  Bill.  A  Bill  to  remould  the  whole  political  con- 
stitution of  the  country — and  the  House  of  Commons  not  caring 
enough  about  the  subject  to  contribute  forty  listeners,  or  even 
forty  patient  watchers,  within  the  precincts  of  Westminster 
Palace !  When  the  attempt  to  count  did  not  succeed  in  the 
ordinary  way,  it  occurred  to  the  genius  of  some  of  the  Con- 
servatives that  the  object  might  be  accomplished  by  a  little 
gentle  and  not  unacceptable  violence.  A  number  of  stout 
squires  therefore  got  round  the  door  in  the  lobby,  and  en- 
deavoured by  sheer  physical  obstruction  to  prevent  zealous 
members  from  re-entering  the  House.  It  will  be  easily  under- 
stood what  the  temper  of  the  majority  was  when  horse-play 
of  this  kmd  could  even  be  attempted.  At  length  it  was 
evident  that  the  Bill  could  not  pass  ;  that  the  talk  which  was 
in  preparation  must  smother  it.  The  moment  the  Bill  got 
into  committee  there  would  be  amendments  on  every  line  of 
it,  and  every  memlfer  could  speak  as  often  as  he  pleased.  The 
session  was  passing ;  the  financial  measures  could  not  be 
postponed  or  put  aside ;  the  opponents  of  the  Eeform  Bill, 
open  and  secret,  had  the  Government  at  their  mercy.  On 
Monday,  June  11,  Lord  John  Eussell  announced  that  the 
Government  had  made  up  their  minds  to  withdraw  the  Bill. 
Thenceforward  it  was  understood  that  Lord  Palmerston 
would  have  no  more  of  Reform.  There  was  to  be  no  Reform 
Bill  while  Lord  Palmerston  lived. 

The  Queen's  Speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  on 
January  24,  18G0,  mentioned,  among  other  things,  the  re- 
newal of  disturbances  in  China.  The  treaty  of  Tien-tsin, 
which  had  been  arranged  by  Lord  Elgin  and  Baron  Gros, 
contained  a  clause  providing  for  the  exchange  of  the  ratifi- 
cations at  Pekin  within  a  year  from  the  date  of  the  signature, 
which  took  place  in  June  1858.  Lord  Elgin  returned  to 
England,  and  his  brother,  Mr.  Frederick  Bruce,  was  appointed 
in  March  1859  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary to  Chma.  Mr.  Bruce  was  directed  to  proceed  by  way 
of  the  Peiho  to  Tien-tsin,  and  thence  to  Pekin  to  exchange 
the  ratifications  of  the  treaty.     Lord  Malmesbury,  who  was 


234       -4   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xvii. 

then  Foreign  Secretary,  pointed  out  that  the  Chinese  autho- 
rities having  the  strongest  objection  to  the  presence  of  an 
Envoy  in  Pekin,  would  probably  try  to  interpose  all  manner 
of  delays  and  difficulties  ;  and  impressed  upon  Mr.  Bruce 
that  he  was  not  to  be  put  off  from  going  to  the  capital. 
Instructions  were  sent  out  from  England  at  the  same  time  to 
Admiral  Hope,  the  Naval  Commander-in-Chief  in  China,  to 
provide  a  sufficient  force  to  accompany  Mr.  Bruce  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Peiho. 

The  Peiho  river  flows  from  the  highlands  on  the  west  into 
the  Gulf  of  Pecheli,  at  the  north-east  corner  of  the  Chinese 
dominions.  The  capital  of  the  Empire  is  about  one  hundred 
miles  inland  from  the  mouth  of  the  Peiho.  It  does  not  stand 
on  that  river,  which  flows  past  it  at  some  distance  westward, 
but  it  is  connected  with  the  river  by  means  of  a  canal.  The 
town  of  Tien-tsin  stands  on  the  Peiho  near  its  junction  with 
one  of  the  many  rivers  that  flow  into  it,  and  about  forty  miles 
from  the  mouth.  The  entrance  to  the  Peiho  was  defended  by 
the  Taku  forts.  On  June  20,  1859,  Mr.  Bruce  and  the  French 
Envoy  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Peiho  with  Admiral  Hope's 
fleet,  some  nineteen  vessels  in  all,  to  escort  them.  They 
found  the  forts  defended ;  some  negotiations  and  inter- com- 
munications took  place,  and  a  Chinese  official  from  Tien-tsin 
came  to  Mr.  Bruce  and  endeavoured  to  obtain  some  delay  or 
compromise.  Mr.  Bruce  became  convinced  that  the  condition 
of  things  predicted  by  Lord  Malmesbury  was  coming  about, 
and  that  the  Chinese  authorities  were  only  trying  to  defeat  his 
purpose.  He  called  on  Admiral  Hope  to  clear  a  passage  for 
the  vessels.  When  the  Admiral  brought  up  his  gunboats  the 
forts  opened  fire.  The  Chinese  artillerymen  showed  unex- 
pected skill  and  precision.  Four  of  the  gunboats  were  almost 
immediately  disabled.  All  the  attacking  vessels  got  aground. 
Admiral  Hope  attempted  to  storm  the  forts.  The  attempt  was 
a  complete  failure.  Admiral  Hope  himself  was  wounded  ;  so 
was  the  commander  of  the  French  vessel  which  had  contributed 
a  contingent  to  the  storming  party.  The  attempt  to  force  a 
passage  of  the  river  was  given  up,  and  the  mission  to  Pekin 
was  over  for  the  present. 

It  seems  only  fair  to  say  that  the  Chinese  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Peiho  cannot  be  accused  of  perfidy.  They  had  mounted 
the  forts  and  barricaded  the  river  openly  and  even  ostentatiously. 
The  English  Admiral  knew  for  days  and  days  that  the  forts 
were  armed,  and  that  the  passage  of  the  river  was  obstructed. 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERSTON  AGAIN.  235 

Some  of  the  English  officers  who  were  actually  engaged  in 
the  attempt  of  Admiral  Hope  frankly  repudiated  the  idea  of 
any  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese,  or  any  surprise  on 
their  own  side.  They  knew  perfectly  well,  they  said,  that  the 
forts  were  about  to  resist  the  attempt  to  force  a  way  for  the 
Envoys  up  the  river. 

It  will  be  easily  imagined  that  the  news  created  a  deep 
sensation  in  England.  People  in  general  made  up  their  minds 
at  once  that  the  matter  could  not  be  allowed  to  rest  there,  and 
that  the  mission  to  Pekin  must  be  enforced.  At  the  same 
time  a  strong  feeling  prevailed  that  the  Envoy,  Mr.  Bruce, 
had  been  imprudent  and  precipitate  in  his  conduct.  For  this, 
however,  it  seems  more  just  to  blame  Lord  Malmesbury  than 
Mr.  Bruce,  who  might  well  have  thought  that  his  instructions 
left  him  no  alternative  but  to  force  his  way.  Before  the  whole 
question  came  to  be  discussed  in  Parliament  the  Conservatives 
had  gone  out  and  the  Liberals  had  come  in. 

The  English  and  French  Governments  determined  that  the 
men  who  had  made  the  treaty  of  Tien-tsin — Lord  Elgin  and 
Baron  Gros — should  be  sent  back  to  insist  on  its  reinforcement. 
Sir  Hope  Grant  was  appointed  to  the  military  command  of 
our  land  forces,  and  General  Cousin  de  Montauban,  afterwards 
Count  Palikao,  commanded  the  soldiers  of  France.  The 
Chinese,  to  do  them  justice,  fought  very  bravely,  but  of  course 
they  had  no  chance  whatever  against  such  forces  as  those 
commanded  by  the  English  and  French  generals.  The  allies 
captured  the  Taku  forts,  occupied  Tien-tsin,  and  marched  on 
Pekin.  The  Chinese  Government  endeavoured  to  negotiate 
for  peace,  and  to  interpose  any  manner  of  delay,  diplomatic  or 
otherwise,  between  the  allies  and  their  progress  to  the  capital. 
Lord  Elgin  consented  at  last  to  enter  into  negotiations  at 
Tungchow,  a  walled  town  ten  or  twelve  miles  nearer  than 
Pekin.  Before  the  negotiations  took  place.  Lord  Elgin's 
secretaries,  Mr.  Parkes  and  Mr.  Loch,  some  English  officers, 
Mr.  Bowlby,  the  correspondent  of  the  Times,  and  some 
members  of  the  staff  of  Baron  Gros,  were  treacherously 
seized  by  the  Chinese  while  under  a  flag  of  truce  and  di'agged 
off  to  various  prisons.  Mr.  Parkes  and  Mr.  Loch,  with  eleven 
of  their  companions,  were  afterwards  released,  after  having 
been  treated  with  much  cruelty  and  indignity,  but  thirteen 
of  the  prisoners  died  of  the  horrible  ill-treatment  they  received. 
Lord  Elgin  refused  to  negotiate  until  the  prisoners  had  been 
returned,  and  the  allied  armies  were  actually  at  one  fo  the 


236      A   SHORT  HJSTORY   OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xvii. 

great  gates  of  Peldn,  and  had  their  guns  in  position  to  blow 
the  gate  in,  when  the  Chinese  acceded  to  their  terms.  The 
gate  was  surrendered,  the  alhes  entered  the  city,  and  the 
English  and  French  flags  were  hoisted  side  by  side  on  the 
walls  of  Pekin.  It  was  only  after  entering  the  city  that  Lord 
Elgin  learned  of  the  murder  of  the  captives.  He  then 
determined  that  the  Summer  Palace  should  be  burnt  down  as  a 
means  of  impressing  the  mind  of  the  Chinese  authorities  gene- 
rally with  some  sense  of  the  danger  of  treachery  and  foul  play. 
Two  days  were  occupied  in  the  destruction  of  the  palace.  It 
covered  an  area  of  many  miles.  Gardens,  temples,  small 
lodges,  and  pagodas,  groves,  grottoes,  lakes,  bridges,  terraces, 
artificial  hills,  diversified  the  vast  space.  All  the  artistic 
treasures,  all  the  curiosities,  arch^ological  and  other,  that 
Chinese  wealth  and  Chinese  taste,  such  as  it  was,  could  bring 
together,  had  been  accumulated  in  this  magnificent  pleasaunce. 
The  surrounding  scenery  was  beautiful.  The  high  mountains 
of  Tartary  ramparted  one  side  of  the  enclosure.  The  buildings 
were  set  on  fire  ;  the  whole  place  was  given  over  to  destruc- 
tion. A  monument  was  raised  with  an  inscription  in  Chinese, 
setting  forth  that  such  was  the  reward  of  perfidy  and  cruelty. 
Very  different  opinions  were  held  in  England  as  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Imperial  palace.  To  many  it  seemed  an 
act  of  unintelligible  and  unpardonable  vandalism.  Lord  Elgin 
explained,  that  if  he  did  not  demand  the  surrender  of  the 
actual  perpetrators,  it  was  because  he  knew  full  well  that  no 
difficulty  would  have  been  made  about  giving  him  a  seeming 
satisfaction.  The  Chinese  Government  would  have  selected 
for  vicarious  punishment,  in  all  probability,  a  crowd  of  mean 
and  unfortunate  wretches  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
murders,  who  perhaps  had  never  heard  that  such  murders 
were  done,  and  who  would  possibly  even  go  to  their  death 
without  the  slightest  notion  of  the  reason  why  they  were  chosen 
out  for  such  a  doom.  Most  of  our  actions  in  the  war  were 
unjustifiable ;  Lord  Elgin's  was  the  one  for  which,  perhaps, 
the  best  case  could  be  made  out  by  a  moralist.  It  is  some- 
what singular  that  so  many  persons  should  have  been  roused 
to  indignation  by  the  destruction  of  a  building  who  took  with 
perfect  composure  the  unjust  invasion  of  a  country.  The  allied 
powers  now  of  course  had  it  all  their  own  way.  England 
established  her  right  to  have  an  envoy  in  Pekin,  whether 
the  Chinese  liked  it  or  not.  China  had  to  pay  a  war  indemnity, 
and  a  large  sum  of  money  as  compensation  to  the  families 


CH.  XVII.  LORD  PALMERSTON  AGAIN,  237 

of  tlie  murdered  prisoners  and  to  those  who  had  suffered 
injuries,  and  to  make  an  apology  for  the  attack  by  the  garrison 
of  the  Taku  forts.  Perhaps  the  most  important  gain  to  Europe 
from  the  war  was  the  knowledge  that  Pekin  was  not  by  any 
means  so  large  a  city  as  we  had  all  imagined  it  to  be,  and  that 
it  was  on  the  whole  rather  a  crumbling  and  tumble -down  sort 
of  place. 

The  same  year  saw  also  the  troubles  in  the  mountain 
terraces  of  the  Lebanon,  which  likewise  led  to  the  combined 
intervention  of  England  and  France.  The  disturbances  arose 
out  of  the  rivalries  and  quarrels  between  two  sects,  the 
Maronites,  who  were  Christians,  and  the  Druses,  who  were 
neither  Christians  nor  Mussulmans.  The  Turkish  com- 
mander disarmed  many  of  the  Maronites  near  Beyrout,  and 
seems  then  to  have  abandoned  them  to  the  Druses,  who 
massacred  them  all.  In  July  the  fanatical  spirit  spread  to 
Damascus.  A  mob  of  Turkish  fanatics  made  a  general  attack 
upon  the  Christian  quarter,  and  burned  the  greater  part  of  it 
down.  The  consulates  of  France,  Kussia,  Austria,  Holland, 
Belgium,  and  Greece  were  destroyed.  Nearly  two  thousand 
Christians  were  massacred  in  that  one  day's  work.  Many  of 
the  respectable  Mussulman  inhabitants  of  Damascus,  the 
famous  Algerian  chief  Abd-el-Kader  among  them,  were  most 
generous  and  brave  in  their  attempts  to  save  and  shelter  the 
unfortunate  Christians ;  but  the  Turkish  Governor  of  Damascus, 
although  he  had  a  strong  military  force  at  his  dis]30sal,  made 
no  serious  effort  to  interfere  with  the  work  of  massacre  ;  and, 
aa  might  be  expected,  his  supineness  was  construed  by  the  mob 
as  an  official  approval  of  their  doings,  and  they  murdered 
with  all  the  more  vigour  and  zest. 

The  news  of  the  massacre  in  the  Lebanon  .  laturally  created 
a  profound  sensation  in  England.  England  and  France  took 
strong  and  decisive  steps.  They  resolved  upon  instant  inter- 
vention to  restore  tranquillity  m  the  Lebanon.  A  convention 
was  drawn  up,  to  which  all  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  agreed, 
and  which  Turkey  had  to  accept.  By  the  convention  England 
and  France  were  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  r^stormg  order. 
France  undertook  to  supply  the  troops  required  in  the  first 
instance ;  further  requirements  were  to  be  met  as  the  inter- 
vening Powers  might  think  fit.  The  intervening  Powers 
pledged  themselves  reciprocally  not  to  seek  for  any  territorial 
advantage  or  exclusive  influence.  England  sent  out  Lord 
Duflerin  to  act   as  her  Commissioner;  and  Lord  Dufferin 


238      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xvii. 

accomplished  his  task  with  as  much  spirit  as  judgment.  The 
Turkish  Government,  to  do  it  justice,  had  at  last  shown  great 
energy  in  punishing  the  authors  and  the  abettors  of  the  mas- 
sacres. The  Sultan  sent  out  Fuad  Pasha,  his  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  to  the  Lebanon ;  and  Fuad  Pasha  showed  no 
mercy  to  the  promoters  of  the  disturbances,  or  even  to  the 
highly-placed  official  abettors  of  them.  The  governor  of 
Damascus  and  the  commander  of  the  Turkish  troops  suffered 
death  for  their  part  in  the  transactions,  and  about  sixty 
persons  were  publicly  executed  in  the  city,  of  whom  the 
greater  number  belonged  to  the  Turkish  police  force.  When 
the  intervention  had  succeeded  in  thoroughly  restoring  order, 
the  representatives  of  the  Great  Powers  assembled  in  Con- 
stantinople unanimously  agreed  that  a  Christian  governor  of 
the  Lebanon  should  be  appointed  in  subordination  to  the 
Sultan  ;  and  the  Sultan  had,  of  course,  no  choice  but  to  agree 
to  this  proposition.  The  French  troops  evacuated  Syria  in 
June  1861,  and  thereby  much  relieved  the  minds  of  many 
Englishmen,  who  had  long  forgotten  all  about  the  domestic 
affairs  of  the  Lebanon  in  their  alarm  lest  the  French  Lnperial 
troops,  having  once  set  foot  in  Syria,  should  not  easily  be 
induced  to  quit  the  country  again. 

It  would  hardly  be  fitting  to  close  the  history  of  this 
eventful  year  without  giving  a  few  lines  to  record  the  peaceful 
end  of  a  stormy  life.  Quietly  in  his  Kensington  home  passed 
away,  in  the  late  autumn  of  this  year,  Thomas  Cochrane — 
the  gallant  Dundonald,  the  hero  of  the  Basque  Eoads,  the 
volunteer  who  lent  his  genius  and  his  courage  to  the  cause  of 
Brazil,  of  Chili,  and  of  Greece ;  a  sailor  of  the  Elizabethan 
mould.  Lord  Dundonald  had  been  the  victim  of  cruel, 
although  not  surely  intentional,  injustice.  He  was  accused  of 
having  had  a  share  in  the  famous  stockjobbing  frauds  of  1814  ; 
he  was  tried,  found  guilty,  sentenced  to  fine  and  imprison- 
ment ;  expelled  from  the  House  of  Commons,  dismissed  from 
the  service  which  he  had  helped  to  make  yet  more  illustrious 
than  he  found  it ;  and  deprived  of  all  his  public  honours.  He 
lived  to  see  his  innocence  believed  in  as  well  by  his  enemies 
as  by  his  friends.  William  IV.  reinstated  him  in  his  naval 
rank,  and  Queen  Victoria  had  the  congenial  task  of  completing 
the  restoration  of  his  well- won  honours.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  many  years  after  his  death  that  the  country  fully 
acquitted  itself  of  the  mere  money  debt  which  it  owed  to 
Lord  Dundonald  and  his  family.     Cochrane  was  a  Kadical  in 


cu.  XVII.  ZOJ^D  PALMERSTON  AGAIN',  239 

politics,  and  for  some  years  sat  as  a  colleague  of  Sir  Francis 
Burdett  in  the  representation  of  Westminster.  He  carried 
on  in  the  House  of  Commons  many  a  bitter  argument  with 
Mr.  John  Wilson  Croker,  when  the  latter  w^as  Secretary  to 
the  Admiralty.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  Cochrane's  political 
views  and  his  strenuous  way  of  asserting  them,  made  him 
many  enemies,  and  that  some  men  were  glad  of  the  oppor- 
tunity for  revenge  which  was  given  by  the  accusation  got  up 
against  him.  His  was  an  impatient  spirit,  little  suited  for 
the  discipline  of  parliamentary  life.  His  tongue  was  often 
bitter,  and  he  was  too  apt  to  assume  that  a  political  opponent 
must  be  a  person  unworthy  of  respect.  Even  in  his  own 
service  he  was  impatient  of  rebuke.  To  those  under  his 
command  he  was  always  genial  and  brotherly  ;  but  to  those 
above  him  he  was  sometimes  wanting  in  that  patient  sub- 
mission which  is  an  essential  quality  of  those  who  would 
learn  how  to  command  with  most  success.  Cochrane's  true 
place  was  on  his  quarter-deck ;  his  opportunity  came  in  the 
extreme  moment  of  danger.  Then  his  spirit  asserted  itself. 
His  gift  was  that  which  wTenches  success  out  of  the  very 
jaws  of  failure  ;  he  saw  his  way  most  clearly  when  most 
others  began  to  despair.  His  later  life  had  been  passed  in 
retirement.  It  was  his  death,  on  October  30,  1860,  which 
recalled  to  the  mind  of  the  living  generation  the  hero  whose 
exploits  had  divided  the  admiration  of  their  fathers  with  those 
of  Nelson,  of  Collingwood,  and  of  Sidney  Smith.  A  new 
style  of  naval  warfare  has  come  up  since  those  days,  and 
perhaps  Cochrane  may  be  regarded  as  the  last  of  the  old 
sea-kings. 

CHAPTEE  Xyill. 

THE    CIVIL   WAR   IN  AMERICA. 

Civil  war  broke  out  in  the  United  States.  Abraham  Lincoln's 
election  as  President,  brought  about  by  the  party  divisions  of 
the  Southerners  among  themselves,  seemed  to  the  South  the 
beginning  of  a  new  order  of  things,  in  which  they  and  their 
theories  of  government  w^ould  no  longer  predominate.  The 
struggle  became  one  for  life  or  death  between  slavery  and  the 
principles  of  modern  society.  Slavery  existed  in  the  Southern 
States,  though  it  had  ceased  long  to  exist  in  the  North.  The 
two   systems   w^ere  really  incompatible,   but  the  inevitable 


240      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xviiz. 

struggle  between  the  supporters  and  the  opponents  of  slavery 
might  have  been  mdefinitely  delayed  if  the  Southern  States, 
the  Slave  States,  had  not  decided  to  secede  from  the  Union,  to 
cut  themselves  adrift  from  the  abolitionist  North,  and  form 
a  slave-holding  confederation  of  their  own. 

The  Southern  States,  led  by  South  Carolina,  seceded. 
Their  delegates  assembled  at  Montgomery,  in  Alabama,  on 
February  4,  1801,  to  agree  upon  a  constitution.  A  Southern 
confederation  was  formed,  with  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  as  its 
President.  Even  then  war  might  not  have  taken  place  ;  the 
North  and  South  might  have  come  to  some  agreement  but  for 
the  impetuous  action  of  South  Carolina.  This  State  had 
been  the  first  to  secede,  and  it  was  the  first  to  commit  an  act 
of  war.  The  traveller  in  South  Carolina,  as  he  stands  on 
one  of  the  quays  of  Charleston  and  looks  towards  the  Atlantic, 
sees  the  sky  line  across  the  harbour  broken  by  a  heavy-looking 
solid  square  fort,  which  soon  became  famous  in  the  v^ar.  This 
was  Fort  Sumter,  a  place  built  on  an  artificial  island,  with 
walls  some  sixty  feet  high  and  eight  to  twelve  feet  thick.  It 
was  in  the  occupation  of  the  Federal  Government,  as  of  course 
were  the  defences  of  all  the  harbours  of  the  Union.  It  is, 
perhaps,  not  necessary  to  say  that  while  each  State  made 
independently  its  local  laws,  the  Federal  Government  and 
Congress  had  the  charge  of  all  business  of  national  interest, 
customs  duties,  treaties,  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  coast 
defences.  The  excited  Secessionists  of  South  Carolina  began 
to  bombard  the  fort.  The  little  garrison  had  no  means  of 
resistance,  and  after  a  harmless  bombardment  of  two  days  it 
surrendered.  The  Federal  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  had 
been  anxious  if  possible  to  enable  North  and  South  to  come  to 
some  terms  without  going  to  war.  After  the  fall  of  Sumter, 
however,  there  was  no  prospect  of  any  peaceful  settlement  of 
the  quarrel.  There  was  an  end  to  all  negotiations ;  thence- 
forward only  strokes  could  arbitrate. 

Four  days  after.  President  Lincoln  called  for  seventy-five 
thousand  men  to  volunteer  in  re-establishing  the  Federal 
authority  over  the  rebel  States.  President  Davis  immediately 
announced  his  intention  to  issue  letters  of  marque.  Pre- 
sident Lincoln  declared  the  Southern  ports  under  blockade. 
On  May  8  Lord  John  Eussell  announced  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  after  consulting  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown 
the  Government  were  of  opinion  that  the  Southern  Confede- 
racy must  be  recognised  as  a.  belligerent  power.     On  May  13 


en.  XVIII.  THE   CIVIL    WAR  IN  AMERICA.  241 

the  neutrality  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Government, 
warning  all  subjects  of  her  Majesty  from  enlisting,  on  land  or 
sea,  in  the  service  of  Federals  or  Confederates,  supplying 
munitions  of  war,  equipping  vessels  for  privateering  purposes, 
engagmg  in  transport  service,  or  doing  any  other  act  calculated 
to  afford  assistance  to  either  belligerent. 

At  first  the  feeling  of  Englishmen  was  almost  unanimously 
in  favour  of  the  North.  It  was  thought  that  the  Southern 
States  would  be  allowed  quietly  to  secede,  and  most  English- 
men did  not  take  a  great  interest  in  the  matter,  or  when  they 
did,  were  inclined  to  regard  the  Southerners  as  a  turbulent  and 
troublesome  set,  who  had  better  be  permitted  to  go  off  with 
their  peculiar  institution  and  keep  it  all  to  themselves.  When, 
however,  it  became  apparent  that  the  secession  must  lead 
to  war,  then  many  of  the  same  Englishmen  began  to 
blame  the  North  for  making  the  question  any  cause  of 
disturbance  to  the  world.  There  was  a  kind  of  impatient 
feeling,  as  if  we  and  the  world  in  general  had  no  right  to  be 
troubled  with  these  American  quarrels,  as  if  it  were  unfair  to 
us  that  our  cotton  trade  should  be  interrupted  and  we  our- 
selves put  to  inconvenience  for  a  dispute  about  secession. 
There  clearly  would  have  been  no  war  and  no  disturbance  if 
only  the  North  had  agreed  to  let  the  South  go,  and  therefore 
people  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  set  themselves  to  find  good 
cause  for  blaming  the  statesmen  who  did  not  give  in  to  any- 
thing rather  than  disturb  the  world  with  their  obstinacy  and 
their  Union.  Out  of  this  condition  of  feeling  came  the 
resolve  to  find  the  North  in  the  wrong ;  and  out  of  that 
resolve  came  with  many  the  discovery  that  the  Northern 
statesmen  were  all  hypocrites.  Suddenly,  as  if  to  decide 
wavering  minds,  an  event  was  reported  which  made  hosts  of 
admirers  for  the  South  in  England.  The  battle  of  Bull  Eun 
took  place  on  July  21,  1861,  and  the  raw  levies  of  the  North 
were  defeated,  thrown  into  confusion,  and  in  some  instances 
driven  into  ignominious  flight. 

This  was  not  very  surprising.  The  Southerners  had 
always  a  taste  for  soldiering,  and  had  kept  up  their  state 
militia  systems  with  an  energy  and  exactness  which  the 
business-men  of  the  North  had  neither  the  time  nor  the  in- 
clination to  imitate.  It  was  not  very  surprising  if  some  of 
the  hastily-raised  Northern  regiments  of  volunteers  should 
have  proved  wretched  soldiers,  and  should  have  yielded  to  the 
sudden  influence  of  panic.  But  when  the  news  reached 
11 


242      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  GIVN  TIMES,     ch.  xviii. 

England  a  very  flame  of  enthusiasm  leaped  up  for  the  brave 
South,  which,  though  so  small  in  numbers,  had  contrived  with 
such  spirit  and  ease  to  defeat  the  *  Yankees.'  It  is  important 
for  the  fair  understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  events  that 
followed,  to  remember  that  there  was,  among  all  the  advocates 
of  the  South  in  England,  a  very  general  conviction  that  the 
North  was  sure  to  be  defeated  and  broken  up,  and  was  there- 
fore in  no  sense  a  formidable  power.  It  is  well  also  to  bear 
in  mind  that  there  were  only  two  European  States  which 
entertained  this  feeling  and  allowed  it  to  be  everywhere  under- 
stood. The  Southern  scheme  found  support  only  in  England 
and  in  France.  In  all  other  European  countries  the  sym- 
pathy of  people  and  Government  alike  went  with  the  North. 
In  most  places  the  sympathy  arose  from  a  detestation  of 
slavery.  In  Kussia,  or  at  least  with  the  Kussian  Govern- 
ment, it  arose  from  a  dislike  of  rebellion.  The  effect 
was  that  assurances  of  friendship  came  from  all  civilised 
countries  to  the  Northern  States  except  from  England  and 
France  alone.  One  of  the  latest  instructions  given  by  Cavour 
on  his  deathbed  in  this  year  was  that  an  assurance  should  be 
sent  to  the  Federal  Government  that  Italy  could  give  its 
sympathies  to  no  movement  which  tended  to  the  perpetuation 
of  slavery.  The  Pope,  Pius  IX.,  and  Cardinal  Antonelli 
repeatedly  expressed  their  hopes  for  the  success  of  the  Northern 
cause.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Emperor  of  the  French  fully 
believed  that  the  Southern  cause  was  sure  to  triumph,  and 
that  the  Union  would  be  broken  up  ;  he  was  even  very  willing  to 
hasten  what  he  assumed  to  be  the  unavoidable  end.  He  was 
anxious  that  England  should  join  with  him  in  some  measures 
to  facilitate  the  success  of  the  South  by  recognising  the 
Government  of  the  Southern  Confederation.  He  had  after- 
wards reason  to  curse  the  day  when  he  reckoned  on  the 
break-up  of  the  Union,  and  persuaded  himself  that  there  was 
no  occasion  to  take  account  of  the  Northern  strength.  Yet  in 
France  the  people  in  general  were  on  the  side  of  the 
North.  Only  the  Emperor  and  his  Government  were  on  that 
of  the  South.  In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  the  vast 
majority  of  what  are  called  the  influential  classes  came  to  be 
heart  and  soul  with  the  South,  and  strove  to  bring  or  force 
the  Government  to  the  same  side. 

At  first  the  Northern  States  counted  with  absolute  con- 
fidence upon  the  sympathy  of  England.  The  one  reproach 
Englishmen  had  always  been  casting  in  their  face  was  that 


CH.  xviii.  THE   CIVIL    WAR  IN  AMERICA,  243 

they  did  not  take  any  steps  to  put  down  slavery.  It  is  easy  to 
understand,  therefore,  how  Mr.  Lincohi  and  his  friends 
counted  on  the  sympathy  of  the  Enghsh  Government  and 
the  Enghsh  people,  and  how  surprised  they  were  when  they 
found  English  statesmen,  journahsts,  preachers,  and  English 
society  generally  deriding  their  misfortunes  and  apparently 
wishing  for  the  success  of  their  foes.  Their  surprise  changed 
hito  a  feeling  of  bitter  disappointment,  and  that  gave  place  to 
an  angry  temper,  which  exaggerated  every  symptom  of  ill-will, 
distorted  every  fact,  and  saw  wrong  even  where  there  only 
existed  an  honest  purpose  to  do  right. 

It  was  while  this  temper  was  beginning  to  light  up  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  that  the  unfortunate  aii'air  of  the 
Trent  occurred.  The  Confederate  Government  was  anxious 
to  have  a  regular  envoy  in  London  and  another  in  Paris.  Mr. 
Slidell,  a  prominent  Southern  lawyer  and  politician,  was  to 
represent  the  South  at  the  Court  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon, 
provided  he  could  obtain  recognition  there ;  and  Mr.  James 
Murray  Mason,  the  author  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  was  to 
be  despatched  with  a  similar  mission  to  the  Court  of  Queen 
Victoria.  The  two  Southern  envoys  escaped  together  from 
Charleston,  one  dark  and  wet  October  night,  in  a  small 
steamer,  and  got  to  Havana.  There  they  took  passage  for 
Southampton  in  the  English  mail  steamer  Trent.  The 
United  States  sloop  of  war,  San  Jacinto,  happened  to  be 
returning  from  the  African  coast  about  the  same  time.  Her 
commander.  Captain  Wilkes,  was  a  somewhat  hot-tempered 
and  indiscreet  officer.  He  learned  at  Havana  that  the  Con- 
federate agents,  with  their  secretaries,  were  on  their  way  to 
Europe.  He  intercepted  the  Trent.  An  armed  party  was 
then  sent  on  board,  and  the  Confederate  envoys  were  seized, 
with  their  secretaries,  and  carried  as  prisoners  on  board  the 
San  Jacinto,  despite  the  protest  of  the  captain  of  the  English 
steamer  and  from  under  the  protection  of  the  English  flag. 
The  prisoners  were  first  carried  to  New  York,  and  then  con- 
fined in  one  of  the  forts  m  Boston  harbour.  Now,  there 
cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  illegality  of  this  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  Captain  Wilkes.  Mr.  Lincoln  at  once  declared 
that  the  act  of  Captain  Wilkes  could  not  be  sustained.  Lord 
Russell  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  prisoners,  and  on 
January  1, 1862,  the  Confederate  envoys  were  given  up  on  the 
demand  of  the  British  Government,  and  sailed  for  Europe. 
Unfortunately,  however,  a  great  deal  of  harm  ha/1  been  done 


244      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xviil. 

in  the  meantime.  Popular  clamour  in  the  United  States 
had  entirely  approved  of  the  action  of  Captain  Wilkes.  Lord 
Palmerston's  Government  acted,  from  the  first,  as  if  an 
instant  appeal  to  arms  must  be  necessary.  The  episode  was 
singularly  unfortunate  in  its  effect  upon  the  temper  of  the 
majority  in  England  and  America.  From  that  moment  there 
was  a  formidable  party  in  England  who  detested  the  North, 
and  a  formidable  party  in  the  North  who  detested  England. 

The  cause  of  peace  between  nations  lost  a  good  friend 
at  the  close  of  1861.     The  Prince  Consort  died.     The  death 
of  the   Prince,  lamentable  in  every  way,  was  especially _  to 
be   deplored   at   a   time   when   influential    counsels   tending 
towards  forbearance  and  peace  were  much  needed  in  England. 
But  it  may  be  said,  with  literal  truth,  that  when  the  news  of 
the  Prince's  death  was  made  known,  its  possible  effect  on  the 
public  affairs  of  England  was  forgotten  or  unthought  of  in  the 
regret  for  the  personal  loss.    Outside  the  precincts  of  Windsor 
Castle  itself  the  event  was  wholly  unexpected.     Perhaps  even 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Castle  there  was  little  expecta- 
tion up  to  the  last  that  such  a  calamity  was  so  near.     The 
public  had  only  learned  a  few  days  before  that  the  Prince  was 
unwell.     On  December  8  the  Court  Circtda?-  mentioned  that 
he  was  confined  to  his  room  by  a  feverish  cold.     Then  it  was 
announced  that  he  was  '  suffering  from  fever,  unattended  by 
unfavourable  symptoms,  but  likely,  from  its  symptoms,  to 
continue  for  some  time.'     This  latter  announcement  appeared 
in  the  form  of  a  bulletin  on  Wednesday,  December  11.    About 
the  midnight  of  Saturday,  the  14th,  there  was  some  sensation 
and  surprise  created  throughout  London  by  the  tolling  of  the 
great  bell  of  St.  Paul's.     Not  many  people  even  suspected 
the  import  of  the  unusual  sound.     It  signified  the  death  of 
the  Prince  Consort.     He  died  at  ten  minutes   before  eleven 
that  Saturday  night,  in  the  presence  of  the  Queen,  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  and  the  Princesses  Alice  and  Helena.     The  fever 
had  become  fierce  and  wasting  on  Friday,  and  from  that  time 
it  was  only  a  descent  to  death.     Congestion  of  the  lungs  set 
in,  the  consequences  of  exhaustion  ;  the  Prince  fell  into  utter 
weakness,  and  died  conscious  but  without  pain.     He  knew  the 
Queen  to  the  last.     His  latest  look  was  turned  to  her. 

The  Prince  Consort  was  little  more  than  forty-two  years 
of  age  when  he  died.  He  had  always  seemed  to  be  in  good, 
although  not  perhaps  robust,  health ;  and  he  had  led  a 
eingularly  temperate  life.     No  one  in  the  kingdom  seemed 


CH.  XVIII.  THE   CIVIL    WAR  IN  AMERICA,  243 

less  likely  to  be  prematurely  cut  off ;  and  his  death  came  on 
the  whole  country  with  the  shock  of  an  utter  surprise.  The 
regret  was  universal ;  and  the  deepest  regret  was  for  the  wife 
he  had  loved  so  dearly,  and  whom  he  was  condemned  so  soon 
to  leave  behind.  Every  testimony  has  spoken  to  the  singularly 
tender  and  sweet  affection  of  the  loving  home  the  Queen  and 
Prince  had  made  for  themselves.  A  domestic  happiness  rare 
even  among  the  obscurest  was  given  to  them.  It  is  one  of 
the  necessities  of  royal  position  that  marriage  should  be 
seldom  the  union  of  hearts.  The  choice  is  limited  by  con- 
siderations which  do  not  affect  people  in  private  life.  The 
convenience  of  States  has  to  be  taken  into  account ;  the 
possible  likings  and  dislikings  of  peoples  whom  perhaps  the 
bride  and  bridegroom  have  never  seen,  and  are  never  destined 
to  see.  A  marriage  among  princes  is,  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten,  a  marriage  of  convenience  only.  Seldom  indeed  is  it 
made,  as  that  of  the  Queen  was,  wholly  out  of  love.  Seldom 
is  it  even  in  love-matches  when  the  instincts  of  love  are  not 
deceived  and  the  affection  grows  stronger  with  the  days. 
Everyone  Imew  that  this  had  been  the  strange  good  fortune 
of  the  Queen  of  England.  There  w^as  something  poetic, 
romantic  in  the  sympathy  with  w^hich  so  many  faithful  and 
loving  hearts  turned  to  her  in  her  hour  of  unspeakable 
distress. 

The  controversy  about  the  Treyit  was  hardly  over  when  Lorcl 
Eussell  and  Mr.  Adams  were  engaged  in  the  more  prolonged 
and  far  more  serious  controversy  about  the  Confederate  priva- 
teers. Some  Confederate  cruisers,  the  Savannah,  the  Sumter, 
the  Nashville,  and  the  Petrel  scoured  the  seas  for  a  while  as 
privateers,  and  did  some  damage  to  the  shipping  of  the 
Northern  States.  These  were,  however,  but  small  vessels, 
and  each  had  only  a  short  run  of  it.  The  first  privateer 
which  became  really  formidable  to  the  shipping  of  the  North 
was  a  vessel  called  in  her  earlier  history  the  Oreto,  but  after- 
wards better  known  as  the  Florida.  Within  three  months 
she  had  captured  fifteen  vessels.  Thirteen  of  these  she  burnt, 
and  the  other  two  were  converted  into  cruisers  by  the  Con- 
federate Government.  The  Florida  was  built  in  Birkenhead, 
nominally  for  the  use  of  the  Italian  Govermnent.  She  got 
out  of  the  Mersey  without  detention  or  difficulty,  although 
the  American  Minister  had  warned  our  Government  of  her 
real  purpose.  From  that  time  Great  Britain  became  what  an 
American  writer  calls  without  any  exaggeration  '  the  navaj 


246      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XVIIL 

base  of  the  Confederacy.'  As  fast  as  shipbuilders  could  work, 
they  were  preparing  m  British  shipping  yards  a  privateer 
navy  for  the  Confederate  Government.  Mr.  Gladstone  said, 
in  a  speech  which  was  the  subject  of  much  comment,  that 
Jefferson  Davis  had  made  a  navy.  The  statement  was  at  all 
events  not  literally  correct.  The  English  shipbuilders  made 
the  navy.  Mr.  Davis  only  ordered  it  and  paid  for  it.  Only 
seven  Confederate  privateers  were  really  formidable  to  the 
United  States,  and  of  these  five  were  built  in  British  dock- 
yards. We  are  not  including  in  the  list  any  of  the  actual 
war- vessels,  the  rams  and  ironclads,  that  British  energy  was 
preparing  for  the  Confederate  Government.  We  are  now 
speaking  merely  of  the  privateers. 

Of  these  privateers  the  most  famous  by  far  was  the 
Alabama.  It  was  the  fortune  of  this  vessel  to  be  the  occasion 
of  the  establishment  of  a  new  rule  in  the  law  of  nations.  It 
had  nearly  been  her  fortune  to  bring  England  and  the  United 
States  into  war.  The  Alaha^na  was  built  expressly  for  the 
Confederate  service  in  one  of  the  dockyards  of  the  Mersey. 
She  was  built  by  the  house  of  Laird,  a  firm  of  the  greatest 
reputation  in  the  shipbuilding  trade,  and  whose  former  head 
was  the  representative  of  Birkenhead  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
While  in  process  of  construction  she  was  called  the  '  290 ; ' 
and  it  was  not  until  she  had  put  to  sea  and  hoisted  the 
Confederate  flag,  and  Captain  Semmes,  formerly  commander 
of  the  Swnter,  had  appeared  on  her  deck  in  full  Confederate 
uniform,  tliat  she  took  the  name  of  the  Alabama.  During 
her  career  the  Alabama  captured  nearly  seventy  Northern 
vessels.  Her  plan  was  always  the  same.  She  hoisted  the 
British  flag,  and  thus  decoyed  her  intended  victim  within  her 
reach ;  then  she  displayed  the  Confederate  colours  and  captured 
her  prize.  But  the  Alabama  did  not  do  much  fighting ;  she 
preyed  on  merchant  vessels  that  could  not  fight.  Only  twice, 
so  far  as  we  know,  did  she  engage  in  a  fight.  The  first  time 
was  with  the  Hatteras,  a  small  blockading  ship  whose  broad- 
side was  so  unequal  to  that  of  the  Alabavia  that  she  was  sunk 
in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  The  second  time  was  with  the 
United  States  ship  of  war  Kearsarge,  whose  size  and  arma- 
ments were  about  equal  to  her  own.  The  fight  took  place  off 
the  French  shore,  near  Cherbourg,  and  the  career  of  the 
Alabama  was  finished  in  an  hour.  The  Confederate  rover  was 
utterly  shattered,  and  went  down.  Captain  Semmes  was  saved 
by  an  English  steam  yacht,  ajid  brought  to  England  to  be 


CH.  XVIII.  THE   CIVIL    WAR  W  AMERICA.  247 

made  a  hero  for  a  while,  and  then  forgotten.  The  cruise  ol 
the  Alabama  had  lasted  nearly  two  years.  During  this  time 
she  had  contrived  to  drive  American  commerce  from  the  seas. 
The  United  States  Government  complained  that  the 
Alahavia  was  practically  an  English  vessel.  She  was  built 
by  English  builders  in  an  English  dockyard ;  she  was  manned 
for  the  most  part  by  an  English  crew ;  her  guns  were  English ; 
her  gunners  were  English ;  many  of  the  latter  belonged  to 
the  Eoyal  Naval  Keserve,  and  were  actually  receiving  pay  from 
the  English  Government ;  she  sailed  under  the  English  flag, 
was  welcomed  in  English  harbours,  and  never  was  in,  or  even 
saw,  a  Confederate  port.  Mr.  Adams  called  the  attention  oi 
the  Government  in  good  time  to  the  fact  that  the  Alaba7na 
was  in  course  of  construction  in  the  dockyard  of  Messrs. 
Laird,  and  that  she  was  intended  for  the  Confederate  Service. 
Indeed,  there  never  was  the  slightest  doubt  on  the  mind 
of  anyone  about  the  business  for  which  the  vessel  in  the 
Birkenhead  dockyard  was  destined.  There  was  no  attempt  at 
concealment  in  the  matter.  Newspaper  paragraphs  described 
the  gradual  construction  of  the  Confederate  cruiser,  as  if  it 
were  a  British  vessel  of  war  that  Messrs.  Laird  had  in  hand. 
Whatever  technical  difficulties  might  have  intervened,  it  is  clear 
that  no  real  doubt  on  the  mind  of  the  Government  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  delays  that  took  place.  At  last.  Lord 
Eussell  asked  for  the  opinion  of  the  Queen's  Advocate.  Time 
was  pressing ;  the  cruiser  was  nearly  ready  for  sea.  Every- 
thing seemed  to  be  against  us.  The  Queen's  Advocate 
happened  to  be  sick  at  the  moment,  and  there  was  another 
delay.  At  last  he  gave  his  opinion  that  the  vessel  ought  to  be 
detained.  The  opinion  came  just  too  late.  The  Alabama  had 
got  to  sea ;  her  cruise  of  nearly  two  years  began.  She  went 
upon  her  destroying  course  with  the  cheers  of  English  sym- 
pathisers and  the  rapturous  tirades  of  English  newspapers 
glorifying  her.  When  Mr.  Bright  brought  on  the  question  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  Mr.  Laird  declared  that  he  would 
rather  be  known  as  the  builder  of  a  dozen  Alabamas,  than  be 
a  man  who,  like  Mr.  Bright,  had  set  class  against  class ;  and 
the  majority  of  the  House  applauded  him  to  the  echo.  Lord 
Palmerston  peremptorily  declared  that  in  this  country  we 
were  not  in  the  habit  of  altering  our  laws  to  please  a  foreign 
State  ;  a  declaration  which  came  with  peculiar  effect  from 
the  author  of  the  abortive  Conspiracy  Bill,  got  up  to  propitiate 
the  Emperor  of  the  French. 


248      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xviii. 

The  building  of  vessels  for  the  Confederates  began  to  go 
on  with  more  boldness  than  ever.  Two  iron  rams  of  the 
most  formidable  kind  were  buirlt  and  about  to  be  launched  in 
1863  for  the  purpose  of  forcibly  -opening  the  Southern  ports 
and  destroying  the  blockading  vessels.  Mr.  Adams  kept 
urging  on  Lord  Russell,  and  for  a  long  time  in  vain,  that 
something  must  be  done  to  stop  their  departure.  Lord 
Bussell  at  first  thought  the  British  Government  could  not 
interfere  in  any  way.  Mr.  Adams  pressed  and  protested,  and 
at  length  was  informed  that  the  matter  was  '  now  under  the 
serious  consideration  of  her  Majesty's  Government.'  At  last, 
on  September  5,  Mr.  Adams  wrote  to  tell  Lord  Eussell  that 
one  of  the  ironclad  vessels  was  on  the  point  of  departure  from 
this  kingdom  on  its  hostile  errand  against  the  United  States  ; 
and  added,  '  it  would  be  superfluous  in  me  to  point  out  to  your 
lordship  that  this  is  war.'  On  September  8  Mr.  Adama 
received  the  following:  'Lord  Eussell  presents  his  compli- 
ments to  Mr.  Adams,  and  has  the  honour  to  inform  him  that 
instructions  have  been  issued  which  will  prevent  the  departure 
of  the  two  ironclad  vessels  from  Liverpool.'  No  more 
Confederate  war- ships  sailed  from  English  ports  after  this. 
But  Lord  Eussell  declined  peremptorily  to  admit  that  the 
English  Government  were  in  any  way  responsible  for 
what  had  been  done  by  the  Confederate  cruisers,  or  that 
England  was  called  on  to  alter  her  domestic  law  to  please  her 
neighbours.  Mr.  Adams  therefore  dropped  the  matter  for  the 
time,  intimating,  however,  that  it  was  only  put  aside  for  the 
moment.  The  United  States  Government  had  their  hands  full 
just  then,  and  in  any  case  could  afford  to  wait.  The  question 
would  keep.  The  British  Government  were  glad  to  be 
relieved  from  the  discussion  and  from  the  necessity  of  arguing 
the  various  points  with  Mr.  Adams,  and  were  under  the 
pleasing  impression  that  they  had  heard  the  last  of  it. 

In  the  meantime  the  war  had  been  going  badly  for  the 
North,  and  her  enemies  began  to  think  that  her  fate  was 
sealed.  The  Emperor  Napoleon  was  working  hard  to  get 
England  to  join  with  him  in  recognising  the  South.  Mr. 
Eoebuck  had  at  one  time  a  motion  in  the  House  of  Commons 
calling  on  the  English  Government  to  make  up  their  minds 
to  the  recognition ;  and  Mr.  Adams  had  explained  again  and 
again  that  such  a  step  would  mean  war  with  the  Northern 
States.  Mr.  Adams  was  satisfied  that  the  fate  of  Mr, 
Roebuck's  motion  would  depend  on  the  military  events  of  a 


CH.  XVIII.  THE  CIVIL    WAR  IN  AMERICA.  249 

few  days.  He  was  right.  The  motion  was  never  pressed  to  a 
division ;  for  during  its  progress  there  came  at  one  moment 
the  news  that  General  Grant  had  taken  Vicksburg  on  the 
Mississippi,  and  that  General  Meade  had  defeated  the  Southern 
General  Lee  at  Gettysburg.  That  was  the  turning  point  of 
the  war,  although  not  many  saw  it  even  then.  The  South 
never  had  a  chance  after  that  hour.  There  was  no  more  said 
in  this  country  about  the  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confede- 
ration, and  the  Emperor  of  the  French  was  thenceforward 
free  to  follow  out  his  plans  as  far  as  he  could  and  alone. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon,  however,  was  for  the  present 
confident  enough  and  quite  content  with  the  success  of  his 
Mexican  expedition.  Mexico  had  been  for  a  long  time  in  a 
very  disorganised  state.  The  Constitutional  Government  of 
Benito  Juarez  had  come  into  power,  and  got  into  difficulties 
with  several  foreign  states,  England  among  the  rest,  over  the 
claims  of  foreign  creditors,  and  wrongs  committed  against 
foreign  subjects.  Lord  Kussell,  who  had  acted  with  great 
forbearance  towards  Mexico  up  to  this  time,  now  agreed  to 
co-operate  with  France  and  Spain  in  exacting  reparation  from 
Juarez.  But  he  explained  clearly  that  England  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  upsetting  the  Government  of  Mexico,  or 
imposing  any  European  system  on  the  Mexican  people.  The 
Emperor  of  the  French,  however,  had  already  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  would  establish  a  sort  of  feudatory  monarchy  in 
Mexico.  He  therefore  persuaded  the  Archduke  Maximilian, 
brother  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  to  accept  the  crown  of  the 
monarchy  he  proposed  to  set  up  in  Mexico.  The  Archduke 
was  a  man  of  pure  and  noble  character,  but  evidently  wanting 
in  strength  of  mind,  and  he  agreed  after  some  hesitation  to 
accept  the  offer.  At  last  the  designs  of  the  French  Government 
became  evident  to  the  English  and  Spanish  Plenipotentiaries, 
and  England  and  Spain  withdrew  from  the  Convention. 
The  Emperor  of  the  French  overran  a  certain  portion  of 
Mexico  with  his  troops,  he  occupied  the  capital,  and  he  set  up 
the  Mexican  Empire  with  Maximilian  as  Emperor.  French 
troops  remamed  to  protect  the  new  Empire.  Against  all  this 
the  United  States  Government  protested  from  time  to  time. 
They  disclaimed  any  intention  to  prevent  the  Mexican  people 
from  establishing  an  empire  if  they  thought  fit ;  but  they 
pointed  out  that  grave  inconveniences  must  arise  if  a  foreign 
Power  like  France  persisted  in  occupying  with  her  troops  any 
part   of  the   American   continent.     However,   the   Emperor 


250      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xviii. 

Napoleon,  complacently  satisfied  that  the  United  States  were 
going  to  pieces,  and  that  the  Southern  Confederacy  would  be 
his  friend  and  ally,  received  the  protests  of  the  American 
Government  with  unveiled  indifference.  At  last  the  tide  in 
American  affairs  turned.  The  Confederacy  crumbled  away — 
Richmond  was  taken  ;  Lee  surrendered  ;  Jefferson  Davis  was  a 
prisoner.  Then  the  United  States  returned  to  the  Mexican 
Question,  and  the  American  Government  informed  Louis 
Napoleon  that  it  would  be  inconvenient,  gravely  inconvenient, 
if  he  were  not  to  withdraw  his  soldiers  from  Mexico.  A 
significant  movement  of  American  troops,  under  a  renowned 
General,  then  flushed  with  success,  was  made  in  the  direction 
of  the  Mexican  frontier.  There  was  nothing  for  Louis  Napoleon 
but  to  withdraw.  Up  to  the  last  he  had  been  rocked  in  the 
vainest  hopes.  Long  after  the  end  had  become  patent  to 
every  other  eye,  he  assured  an  English  member  of  Parliament 
that  he  looked  upon  the  Mexican  Empire  as  the  greatest  creation 
of  his  reign. 

The  Mexican  Empire  lasted  two  months  and  a  week  after 
the  last  of  the  French  troops  had  been  withdrawn.  Maximilian 
endeavoured  to  raise  an  army  of  his  own,  and  to  defend  himself 
against  the  daily  increasing  strength  of  Juarez.  He  showed 
all  the  courage  which  might  have  been  expected  from  his  race, 
and  from  his  own  previous  history.  But  in  an  evil  hour  for 
himself,  and  yielding,  it  is  stated,  to  the  persuasion  of  a  French 
officer,  he  had  issued  a  decree  that  all  who  resisted  his  authority 
in  arms  should  be  shot.  By  virtue  of  this  monstrous  ordinance, 
Mexican  officers  of  the  regular  army,  taken  prisoners  while 
resisting,  as  they  were  bound  to  do,  the  invasion  of  a  European 
prince,  were  shot  like  brigands.  The  Mexican  general,  Ortega, 
was  one  of  those  thus  shamefully  done  to  death.  When  Juarez 
conquered,  and  Maximilian,  in  his  turn,  was  made  a  prisoner, 
he  was  tried  by  court-martial,  condemned,  and  shot.  His  death 
created  a  profound  sensation  in  Europe.  He  had  in  all  his 
previous  career  won  respect  everywhere,  and  even  in  the  Mexican 
scheme  he  was  universally  regarded  as  a  noble  victim  who  had 
been  deluded  to  his  doom.  The  conduct  of  Juarez  in  thus 
having  him  put  to  death  raised  a  cry  of  horror  from  all  Europe  ; 
but  it  must  be  allowed  that,  by  the  fatal  decree  which  he  had 
issued,  the  unfortunate  Maximilian  had  left  himself  liable  to  a 
stern  retaliation.  There  was  cold  truth  in  the  remark  made 
at  the  time,  that  if  he  had  been  only  General  and  not  Arch- 
duke Maximilian  his  fate  would  not  have  aroused  so  much 
surprise  or  anger. 


CH.  XVIII.  THE   CIVIL   WAR  IN  AMERICA,  251 

We  need  not  follow  any  further  the  history  of  the  American 
Civil  War.  The  restoration  of  the  Union,  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln,  and  the  emancipation  of  the  colom-ed  race 
from  all  the  disqualifications,  as  well  as  all  the  bondage,  of  the 
slave  system  belong  to  American  and  not  to  English  history, 
But  the  Alabama  dispute  led  to  consequences  which  are 
especially  important  to  England,  and  which  shall  be  described 
in  their  due  time. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    LAST    OF   LOED    PALMERSTON. 

During  the  later  months  of  his  life  the  Prince  Consort  had 
been  busy  in  preparing  for  another  great  International  Ex- 
hibition to  be  held  in  London.  It  was  arranged  that  this 
Exhibition  should  open  on  May  1,  1862  ;  and  although  the 
sudden  death  of  the  Prince  Consort  greatly  interfered  with  the 
prospects  of  the  undertaking,  it  was  not  thought  right  that 
there  should  be  any  postponement  of  the  opening.  The  Ex- 
hibition building  was  erected  in  South  Kensington,  according 
to  a  design  by  Captain  Fowke.  It  certainly  was  not  a  beauti- 
ful structure.  It  was  a  huge  and  solid  erection  of  brick,  with 
two  enormous  domes,  each  in  shape  strikingly  like  the  famous 
crinoline  petticoat  of  the  period.  The  Fine  Arts  department 
of  the  Exhibition  was  a  splendid  collection  of  pictures  and 
statues.  The  display  of  products  of  all  kinds  from  the  Colonies 
was  rich,  and  was  a  novelty,  for  the  colonists  contributed  little 
indeed  to  the  Exhibition  of  1851,  and  the  intervening  eleven 
years  had  been  a  period  of  immense  colonial  advance.  But  no 
one  felt  any  longer  any  of  the  hopes  which  floated  dreamily 
and  gracefully  round  the  scheme  of  1851.  There  was  no  talk 
or  thought  of  a  reign  of  peace  any  more.  The  Civil  War  was 
raging  in  America.  The  Continent  of  Europe  was  trembling 
all  over  with  the  spasms  of  war  just  done,  and  the  premonitory 
symptoms  of  war  to  come.  The  Exhibition  of  1862  had  to 
rely  upon  its  intrmsic  merits,  like  any  ordinary  show  or  any 
public  market.  Poetry  and  prophecy  had  nothing  to  say  to  it. 
England  was  lefc  for  some  time  to  an  almost  absolute  inac- 
tivity. Between  Palmerston  and  the  Radical  party  in  England 
there  was  a  growing  coldness.  He  had  not  only  thrown  over 
Reform  himself,  but  he  had  apparently  induced  most  of  his 
colleagues  to  accept  the  miderstanding  that  nothing  more  was 


2S2      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,      CH.  xix. 

to  be  said  about  it.  He  had  gone  in  for  a  policy  of  large  ex- 
penditure for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  country  against  the 
possibilities  of  French  invasion.  He  had  spoken  of  the  com- 
mercial treaty  with  France  as  if  it  were  a  thing  rather  ridiculous 
than  otherwise.  He  was  unsparing  whenever  he  had  a  chance 
m  his  ridicule  of  the  ballot.  He  had  very  little  sympathy  with 
the  grievances  of  the  Nonconformists,  some  of  them  even  then 
real  and  substantial  enough.  He  took  no  manner  of  interest  in 
anything  proposed  for  the  political  benefit  of  Ireland.  He 
was  indeed  impatient  of  all  '  views  ; '  and  he  regarded  what  is 
called  philosophic  statesmanship  with  absolute  contempt. 
The  truth  is  that  Palmerston  ceased  to  bo  a  statesman  the 
moment  he  came  to  deal  with  domestic  interests.  When 
actually  in  the  Home  Office,  and  compelled  to  turn  his  attention 
to  the  business  of  that  department,  he  proved  a  very  efficient 
administrator,  because  of  his  shrewdness  and  his  energy.  But 
as  a  rule  he  had  not  much  to  do  with  English  political  affairs, 
and  he  knew  little  or  nothing  of  them.  He  was  even  childishly 
ignorant  of  many  things  which  any  ordinary  public  man  is  sup- 
posed to  know.  He  was  at  home  in  foreign — that  is,  in  Con- 
tinental politics  ;  for  he  had  hardly  any  knowledge  of  American 
affairs,  and  almost  up  to  the  moment  of  the  fall  of  Kichmond 
was  confident  that  the  Union  never  could  be  restored,  and 
that  separation  was  the  easy  and  natural  way  of  settling  all 
the  dispute.  When  he  read  anything  except  despatches  he 
read  scientific  treatises,  for  he  had  a  keen  interest  in  some 
branches  of  science ;  but  he  cared  little  for  modern  English 
literature.  The  world  in  which  he  delighted  to  mingle  talked 
of  Continental  politics  generally,  and  a  great  knowledge  of 
English  domestic  affairs  would  have  been  thrown  away  there. 
Naturally,  therefore,  when  Lord  Palmerston  had  nothing  par- 
ticular to  do  in  foreign  affairs,  and  had  to  turn  his  attention  to 
England,  he  relished  the  idea  of  fortifying  her  against  foreign 
foes.  Lord  Palmerston  acted  sincerely  on  his  opinion,  that 
*  man  is  a  fighting  and  quarrelling  animal,'  and  he  could  see  no 
better  business  for  English  statesmanship  than  to  keep  this 
country  always  in  a  condition  to  resist  a  possible  attack  from 
somebody.  He  differed  almost  radically  on  this  point  from  two 
at  least  of  his  more  important  colleagues,  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis. 

Lord  Palmerston's  taste  for  foreign  affairs  had  now  ample 
means  of  gratification.  England  had  some  small  troubles  of 
iier  own  to  deal  with.     A  serious  insurrection  sprang  up  in 


CH.  XIX.        THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON.  253 

New  Zealand.  The  tribe  of  the  Waikatos,  livmg  near  Auckland, 
in  the  Northern  Island,  began  a  movement  against  the  colonists, 
and  this  became  before  long  a  general  rebellion  of  the  Maori 
natives.  The  Maoris  are  a  remarkably  intelligent  race,  and  are 
skilful  in  war  as  well  as  in  peace.  They  had  a  certain  literary 
art  among  them  ;  they  could  all,  or  nearly  all,  read  and  write  ; 
many  of  them  were  eloquent  and  could  display  considerable 
diplomatic  skill.  They  fought  so  well  in  this  instance  that  the' 
British  troops  actually  suffered  a  somewhat  serious  repulse  in 
endeavouring  to  take  one  of  the  Maori  palisado-fortified  villages. 
In  the  end,  however,  the  Maoris  were  of  course  defeated. 
The  quarrel  was  a  survival  of  a  long-standing  dispute  between 
the  colonists  and  the  natives  about  land.  It  was,  in  fact,  the 
old  story :  the  colonists  eager  to  increase  their  stock  of  land, 
and  the  natives  jealous  to  guard  their  quickly  vanishing 
possession.  The  events  led  to  grave  discussion  in  Parliament. 
The  Legislature  of  New  Zealand  passed  enactments,  confiscat- 
ing some  nine  million  acres  of  the  native  lands,  and  giving  the 
Colonial  Government  something  like  absolute  and  arbitrary 
power  of  arrest  and  imprisonment.  The  Government  at  home 
proposed  to  help  the  colonists  by  a  guarantee  to  raise  a  loan  of 
one  million  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the  war,  or  the  colonial 
share  of  them,  and  this  proposal  was  keenly  discussed  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  Government  passed  their  Guarantee 
Bill,  not  without  many  a  protest  from  both  sides  of  the  House 
that  colonists  who  readily  engaged  in  quarrels  with  natives 
must  some  time  or  other  be  prepared  to  bear  the  expenses 
entailed  by  their  own  policy. 

Trouble,  too,  arose  on  the  Gold  Coast  of  Africa.  Some 
slaves  of  the  King  of  Ashantee  had  taken  refuge  in  British 
territory  ;  the  Governor  of  Cape  Coast  Colony  would  not  give 
them  up  ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1863  the  King  made  threatening 
demonstrations,  and  approached  within  forty  miles  of  our 
frontier.  The  Governor,  assuming  that  the  settlement  was 
about  to  be  invaded  by  the  Ashantee s,  took  it  upon  him  to 
anticipate  the  movement  by  sending  an  expedition  into  the 
territory  of  the  King.  The  season  was  badly  chosen ;  the 
climate  was  pestilential ;  even  the  black  troops  from  the  West 
Indies  could  not  endure  it,  and  began  to  die  like  flies.  The  ill- 
advised  undertaking  had  to  be  given  up  ;  and  the  Government 
at  home  only  escaped  a  vote  of  censure  by  a  narrow  majority 
of  seven.  Much  discussion,  also,  was  aroused  by  occurrences 
in  Japan.     A  British  subject,  Mr.  Eichardson,  was  murdered 


254      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      cii.  xix. 

in  the  English  settlement  of  Japan  and  on  an  open  road  made 
free  to  Englishmen  by  treaty.  This  was  in  September  18G2. 
The  mm'der  was  committed  by  some  of  the  followers  of  Prince 
Satsuma,  one  of  the  powerful  feudal  princes,  who  then  practi- 
cally divided  the  authority  of  Japan  with  the  regular  Govern- 
ment. Separation  was  demanded  both  from  the  Japanese 
Government  and  from  Prince  Satsuma  ;  the  Government  paid 
the  sum  demanded  of  them,  100,000/.,  and  made  an  apology. 
Prince  Satsuma  was  called  on  to  pay  25,000Z.,  and  to  see  that 
the  murderers  were  brought  to  punishment.  Satsuma  did 
nothing,  and  in  1863  Colonel  Neale,  the  English  Charge, 
d' Affaires  in  Japan,  sent  Admiral  Kuper  with  the  English  fleet 
to  Kagosima,  Satsuma's  capital,  to  dem:ind  satisfaction.  The 
Kagosima  forts  opened  fire  on  him,  and  he  then  bombarded 
the  town  and  laid  the  greater  portion  of  it  in  ashes.  Fortu- 
nately the  non-combatant  inhabitants,  the  women  and  children, 
had  had  time  to  get  out  of  Kagosima,  and  the  destruction  of  life 
was  not  great.  The  whole  transaction  was  severely  condemned 
by  many  Englishmen,  but  the  House  of  Commons,  however, 
sustained  the  Government  by  a  large  majority.  The  Govern- 
ment, it  should  be  said,  did  not  profess  to  justify  the  destruction 
of  Kagosima.  Their  case  was  that  Admiral  Kuper  had  to  do 
something  ;  that  there  was  nothing  he  could  very  well  do  when 
he  had  been  fired  upon  but  to  bombard  the  town  ;  and  that  the 
burning  of  the  town  was  an  accident  of  the  conflict  for  which 
neither  he  nor  they  could  be  held  responsible.  Satsuma  finally 
submitted  and  paid  the  money,  and  promised  justice.  But  there 
were  more  murders  and  more  bombardings  yet  before  we  came 
to  anything  like  an  abiding  settlement  wath  Japan  ;  and  Japan 
itself  was  not  far  off  a  revolution,  the  most  sudden,  organic, 
and  to  all  appearance  complete  that  has  ever  yet  been  seen  in 
the  history  of  nations. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  our  Government  became  in- 
volved in  liabilities  more  perilous  than  any  disputes  in  eastern 
or  southern  islands  could  bring  on  them.  An  insurrection  of 
a  very  serious  kind  broke  out  in  Poland.  It  was  provoked  by  the 
attempt  of  the  Eussian  Government  to  choke  off  the  patriotic 
movement  which  was  going  on  in  Poland  by  pressing  into  the 
military  ranks  all  the  young  men  in  the  cities  who  could  by  any 
possibility  be  supposed  to  have  any  sympathy  with  it.  The 
young  men  who  could  escape  fled  to  the  woods,  and  there  formed 
themselves  into  armed  bands,  wJiich  gave  tlic  Russians  great 
trouble.     The  rebels  could  disperse  and  come  together  with 


CH.  XIX.        THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON,  255 

such  ease  and  rapidity  that  it  was  very  difficult  indeed  to  get 
any  real  advantage  over  them.  The  frontier  of  Austrian-Poland 
was  very  near,  and  the  insurgents  could  cross  it,  escape  from 
theEussian  troops,  andrecross  it  when  they  pleased  to  resume 
their  harassing  operations.  Austria  was  not  by  any  means 
so  unh'iendly  to  the  Polish  patriots  as  both  Russia  and  Prussia 
were.  Austria  had  come  unwillingly  into  the  scheme  for  the 
partition  of  Poland,  and  had  got  little  profit  by  it ;  and  it  was 
well  understood  that  if  the  other  Powers  concerned  could  see 
their  way  to  the  restoration  of  Polish  nationality,  Austria,  for 
her  part,  would  make  no  objection.  Prussia  was  still  very 
much  under  the  dominion  of  Russia,  and  was  prevailed  upon 
or  coerced  to  execute  an  odious  convention  with  Russia,  by 
"virtue  of  which  the  Russian  troops  were  allowed  to  follow 
Polish  insurgents  into  Prussian  territory. 

It  was  plain  from  the  first  that  the  Poles  could  not  under 
the  most  favourable  circumstances  hold  out  long  against  Russia 
by  virtue  of  their  own  strength.  The  idea  of  the  Poles  was  to  keep 
the  insurrection  up,  by  any  means  and  at  any  risk,  until  some 
of  the  great  European  Powers  should  be  induced  to  interfere. 
Despite  the  lesson  of  subsequent  events,  the  Poles  were  well 
justified  in  their  political  calculations.  Their  hopes  were  at  one 
time  on  the  very  eve  of  being  realised.  The  Emperor  Napoleon 
was  eager  to  move  to  their  aid,  and  Lord  Russell  was  hardly 
less  eager.  The  Polish  cause  was  very  popular  in  England. 
Russia  was  hated ;  Prussia  was  now  hated  even  mere.  There 
w^as  no  question  of  party  feeling  about  the  sympathy  with 
Poland.  There  were  about  as  many  Conservatives  as  Radicals 
who  were  ready  to  favour  the  idea  of  some  effort  being  made  in 
her  behalf.  Lord  Ellenborough  spoke  up  for  Poland  in  the 
House  of  Lords  with  poetic  and  impassioned  eloquence.  Lord 
Shaftesbury  from  the  opposite  benches  denounced  the  conduct 
of  Russia.  The  Irish  CathoHc  was  as  ardent  for  Polish  liberty 
as  the  London  artisan.  Among  its  most  conspicuous  and  ener- 
getic advocates  in  England  were  Mr.  Pope  Hennessy,  a  Catholic 
and  Irish  member  of  Parliament ;  and  Mr.  Edmond  Beales,  the 
leader  of  a  great  Radical  organisation  in  London .  Great  public 
meetings  were  held,  at  which  Russia  was  denounced  and  Poland 
advocated,  not  merely  by  popular  orators,  but  by  men  of  high 
rank  and  grave  responsibility.  War  was  not  openly  called  for 
at  those  meetings,  or  in  the  House  01  Commons  ;  but  it  was 
urged  that  England,  as  one  of  the  Powers  which  had  signed  the 
Treaty  of  Vienna,  should  join  with  other  States  in  summoning 


256        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  7IMES,     ch.  xix. 

Eussia  to  recognise  the  rights,  such  as  they  were,  which  had 
been  secured  to  Poland  by  virtue  of  that  treaty.  In  France 
the  greatest  enthusiasm  prevailed  for  the  cause  of  Poland. 
The  Emperor  Napoleon  was  ready  for  intervention  if  he  could 
get  England  to  join  him.  Lord  Eussell  went  so  far  as  to  draw 
up  and  despatch  to  Eussia,  in  concert  with  France  and  Austria, 
a  note  on  the  subject  of  Poland.  It  urged  on  the  attention  of 
the  Eussian  Government  six  points,  as  the  outline  of  a  system 
of  pacification  for  Poland.  These  were  : — a  complete  amnesty ; 
a  national  representation  ;  a  distinct  national  administration 
of  Poles  for  the  kingdom  of  Poland  ;  full  liberty  of  conscience, 
with  the  repeal  of  all  the  restrictions  imposed  on  Catholic 
worship ;  the  recognition  of  the  Polish  language  as  official ; 
the  establishment  of  a  regular  system  of  recruiting.  There  was 
an  almost  universal  impression  at  one  moment  that  in  the 
event  of  Eussia  declining  to  accept  these  recommendations, 
England,  Austria,  and  France  would  make  war  to  compel  her. 
It  soon  became  known,  however,  that  there  was  to  be  no 
intervention.  Lord  Palmerston  put  a  stop  to  the  whole  idea. 
It  was  not  that  he  sympathised  with  Eussia.  But  Lord 
Palmerston  had  by  this  time  grown  into  a  profound  distrust 
of  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  He  was  convinced  that  the 
Emperor  was  stirring  in  the  matter  chiefly  with  the  hope  of 
getting  an  opportunity  of  establishing  himself  in  the  Ehine 
provinces  of  Prussia,  on  the  pretext  of  compelling  Prussia  to 
remain  neutral  in  the  struggle,  or  of  punishing  her  if  she 
took  the  side  of  Eussia.  Lord  Palmerston  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  a  proposal  of  the  Emperor  for  an  identical  note  to 
be  addressed  to  Prussia  on  the  subject  of  the  convention  with 
Eussia.  After  a  while  it  became  known  that  England  had 
decided  not  to  join  in  any  project  for  armed  intervention ;  and 
from  that  moment  Eussia  became  merely  contemptuous.  The 
Emperor  of  the  French  would  not  and  could  not  take  action 
single-handed ;  and  Prince  Gortschakoff  politely  told  Lord 
Eussell  that  England  had  really  better  mind  her  own  business 
and  not  encourage  movements  in  Poland  which  were  simply 
the  work  of  '  cosmopolitan  revolution.'  After  this  Austria 
did  not  allow  her  frontier  line  to  be  made  any  longer  a 
basis  of  operations  against  Eussia.  The  insurrection  was 
flung  wholly  on  its  own  resources.  It  was  kept  up  gallantly 
and  desperately  for  a  time,  but  the  end  was  certain.  The 
Eussians  carried  out  their  measures  of  pacification  with  an 
unflinching  hand.     Floggings,  and  shootings,  and  hangings 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON.  257 

of  women  as  well  as  of  men  were  in  full  vigour.  Droves 
of  prisoners  were  sent  to  Siberia.  Poland  was  crushed. 
The  intervention  of  England  had  only  harmed  Poland.  It 
had  been  carried  just  far  enough  to  irritate  the  oppressor  and 
not  far  enough  to  be  of  the  slightest  benefit  to  the  oppressed. 

The  effect  of  the  policy  pursued  by  England  in  this  case 
was  to  bring  about  a  certain  coldness  between  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  and  the  English  Government.  This  fact  was  made 
apparent  some  little  time  after  when  the  dispute  between 
Denmark  and  the  Germanic  Confederation  came  up  in  relation 
to  the  Schleswig-Holstein  succession.  Bchleswig,  Holstein, 
and  Lauenburg  were  Duchies  attached  to  Denmark.  Holstein 
and  Lauenburg  were  purely  German  m  nationality,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  population  of  Schleswig,  much  the  larger 
proportion  in  the  southern  districts,  were  German.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  heart  of  the  German  people  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  condition  of  the  Schleswigers  and 
Holsteiners.  It  was  only  natural  that  a  great  people  should 
have  been  unwillmg  to  see  so  many  of  their  countrymen,  on 
the  very  edge  of  Germany  itself,  kept  under  the  rule  of  the 
Danish  King.  In  truth  the  claims  of  Germany  and  Denmark 
were  irreconcilable.  Put  into  plain  words  the  dispute  was 
bet  >veen  Denmark,  which  wanted  to  make  the  Duchies  Danish, 
and  Germany,  which  wanted  to  have  them  German. 

The  affairs  of  Prussia  were  now  in  the  hands  of  a  strong 
man,  one  of  the  strongest  men  modern  times  have  known. 
Daring,  unscrupulous,  and  crafty  as  Cavour,  Bismarck  T\^as 
even  already  able  to  wield  a  power  which  had  never  been 
within  Cavour' s  reach.  The  public  intelligence  of  Europe 
had  not  yet  recognised  the  marvellous  combination  of  qualities 
which  was  destined  to  make  their  owner  famous,  and  to  prove 
a  dissolving  force  in  the  settled  systems  of  Germany,  and 
indeed  of  the  whole  European  continent.  As  yet  the  general 
opinion  of  the  world  set  down  Herr  von  Bismarck  as  simply  a 
fanatical  reactionary,  a  combination  of  bully  and  buffoon. 
The  Schleswig-Holstein  Question  became,  however,  a 
very  serious  one  for  Denmark  when  it  was  taken  up  by 
Bismarck.  From  first  to  last  the  mind  of  Bismarck  v\^as 
evidently  made  up  that  the  Duchies  should  be  annexed  to 
Prussia.  War  became  certain.  Austria  and  Prussia  entered 
into  joint  agreements  for  the  purpose,  and  Denmark,  one  of 
the  smallest  and  weakest  kingdoms  in  the  world,  found 
herself  engaged  in  conflict  with  Austria  and  Prussia  combined. 


258        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     CH.  xix 

The  little  Danisli  David  had  defied  two  Goliaths  to  combat 
at  one  moment. 

Were  the  Danes  and  their  Sovereign  and  their  Govern- 
ment mad  ?  Not  at  all.  They  well  knew  that  they  could 
not  hold  out  alone  against  the  two  German  Great  Powers. 
But-  they  counted  on  the  help  of  Europe,  and  especially  of 
England.  Lord  Russell  in  multitudinous  despatches  had  very 
often  given  the  Danish  Government  sound  and  sensible  advice. 
He  had  declared,  that  if  Denmark  did  not  follow  England's 
advice  England  would  not  come  to  her  assistance  in  case  she 
were  attacked  by  the  Germans.  Denmark  interpreted  this  as 
an  assurance  that  if  she  followed  England's  counsels  she 
might  count  on  England's  protection,  and  she  insisted  that 
she  had  strictly  followed  England's  counsels  for  this 
very  reason.  When  the  struggle  seemed  approaching.  Lord 
Palmerston  said  in  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  close  of  a 
session,  that  if  any  violent  attempt  were  made  to  overthrow 
the  rights  and  interfere  with  the  independence  of  Denmark, 
those  who  made  the  attempt  would  find  in  the  result  that  it 
would  not  be  Denmark  alone  with  which  they  would  have  to 
contend.  These  words  were  afterwards  explained  as  intended 
to  be  merely  prophetic,  and  to  indicate  Lord  Palmerston' s 
private  belief  that  in  the  event  of  Denmark  being  invaded, 
France,  or  Russia,  or  some  State  somewhere,  would  probably 
be  generous  enough  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  Danes. 
But  when  the  words  were  spoken,  it  did  not  occur  to  the 
mind  of  anyone  to  interpret  them  in  such  a  sense.  Everyone 
believed  that  Lord  Palmerston  was  answering  on  behalf  of 
the  English  Government  and  the  English  people. 

The  Danes  counted  with  confidence  on  the  help  of 
England.  They  refused  to  accept  the  terms  which  Germany 
would  have  imposed.  They  prepared  for  war.  Public  opinion 
in  England  was  all  but  unanimous  in  favour  of  Denmark. 
Five  out  of  every  six  persons  were  for  England's  drawing  the 
sword  in  her  cause  at  once.  Five  out  of  every  six  of  the 
small  minority  who  were  against  w^ar  were  nevertheless  in 
sympathy  with  the  Danes.  Many  reasons  combined  to  bring 
about  this  condition  of  national  feeling.  Austria  was  not 
popular  in  England ;  Prussia  was  detested.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  had  been  married  to  the  Princess  Alexandra,  the 
daughter  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  on  March  10,  18G3.  She 
was  not  a  Dane,  but  her  family  had  now  come  to  rule  in 
Denmark,  and  she  became  in  that  sense  a  Danisli  princess. 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON'.  259 

Her  youth,  her  beauty,  her  goodness,  her  s-weet  and  winning 
ways,  had  made  her  more  popular  than  any  foreign  princess 
ever  before  was  known  to  be  in  England.  It  seemed  even  to 
some  who  ought  to  have  had  more  judgment  that  the  virtues 
and  charms  of  the  Princess  Alexandra,  and  the  fact  that  she 
was  now  Princess  of  Wales,  supplied  ample  proof  of  the  justice 
of  the  Danish  cause,  and  of  the  duty  of  England  to  support 
it  in  arms.  Not  small,  therefore,  was  the  disappointment 
spread  over  the  country  when  it  was  found  tliat  the  Danes 
were  left  alone  to  their  defence,  and  that  England  was 
not  to  put  out  a  hand  to  help  them.  Lord  Eussell  was  willing 
at  one  moment  to  intervene  by  arms  in  support  of  Denmark 
if  France  would  join  with  England,  and  he  made  a  proposal  of 
this  kind  to  the  French  Government.  The  Emperor  Napoleon 
refused  to  interfere.  He  had  been  hurt  by  England's  refusal 
to  join  with  him  in  sustaining  Poland  against  Prussia,  and  now 
was  his  time  to  make  a  return.  There  was  absolutely  nothing 
for  it  but  to  leave  the  Danes  to  fight  out  their  battle  in  the 
best  way  they  could. 

The  Danes  fought  with  a  great  deal  of  spirit ;  but  they 
were  extravagantly  outnumbered,  and  their  weapons  were 
miserably  unfit  to  contend  against  their  powerful  enemies. 
The  Prussian  needle-gun  came  mto  play  with  terrible  effect 
in  the  campaign,  and  it  soon  made  all  attempts  at  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  Danes  utterly  hopeless.  The  Danes  lost 
their  ground  and  their  fortresses.  They  won  one  little  fight 
on  the  sea,  defeating  some  Austrian  vessels  in  the  German 
Ocean  off  Heligoland.  The  news  was  received  with  wild 
enthusiasm  in  England.  Its  announcement  in  the  House  of 
Commons  drew  down  the  miwonted  manifestation  of  a  round 
of  applause  from  the  Strangers'  Gallery.  But  the  struggle 
had  ceased  to  be  anything  like  a  serious  campaign.  The 
English  Government  kept  up  active  negotiations  on  behalf  of 
peace,  and  at  length  succeeded  in  inducing  the  belligerents 
to  agree  to  a  suspension  of  arms,  in  order  that  a  Conference 
of  the  Great  Powers  might  be  held  in  London.  The  delibera- 
tions of  the  Conference  came  to  nothing.  Curiously  enough 
the  final  rejection  of  all  compromise  came  from  the  Danes. 
The  war  broke  out  again.  The  renewed  hostilities  lasted, 
however,  but  a  short  time.  The  Danish  Government  sent 
I'rince  John  of  Denmark  direct  to  Berlin  to  negotiate  for 
peace,  and  terms  of  peace  were  easily  arranged.  Nothing 
could  be  more  simple.     Denmark  gave  up  everything  she  had 


26o        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     CH.  xix. 

been  fighting  for,  and  agreed  to  bear  part  of  the  expense 
which  had  been  entailed  upon  the  German  Powers  by  the 
task  of  chastising  her.  The  Duchies  were  surrendered  to  the 
disposal  of  the  Allies.  A  new  war  was  to  settle  the  owner- 
ship of  the  Duchies,  and  some  much  graver  questions  of 
German  interest  at  the  same  time. 

It  was  obviously  impossible  that  the  conduct  of  the  English 
Government  should  pass  unchallenged.  Accordingly,  in  the 
two  Houses  of  Parliament  notices  were  given  of  a  vote  of 
censure  on  the  Government.  Lord  Malmesbury,  in  Lord 
Derby's  absence,  proposed  the  resolution  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  it  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  nine.  The  Govern- 
ment made  little  account  of  that ;  the  Lords  always  had  a 
Tory  majority.  In  the  House  of  Commons,  however,  the 
matter  was  much  more  serious.  On  July  4, 1864,  Mr.  Disraeli 
himself  moved  the  resolution  condemning  the  conduct  of  the 
Government.  The  resolution  invited  the  House  to  express 
its  regret  that  '  while  the  course  pursued  by  her  Majesty's 
Government  has  failed  to  maintain  their  avowed  policy  of 
upholding  the  integrity  and  independence  of  Denmark,  it  has 
lowered  the  just  influence  of  this  country  in  the  capitals  of 
Europe,  and  thereby  diminished  the  securities  for  peace.' 
Mr.  Disraeli's  speech  was  ingenious  and  telling.  The  Govern- 
ment did  not  make  any  serious  attempts  to  justify  all  they 
had  done.  They  were  glad  to  seize  upon  the  opportunity 
offered  by  an  amendment  which  Mr.  Kinglake  proposed,  and 
which  merely  declared  the  satisfaction  with  which  the  House 
had  learned  *  that  at  this  conjuncture  her  Majesty  had  been 
advised  to  abstain  from  armed  intervention  in  the  war  now 
going  on  between  Denmark  and  the  German  Powers.'  This 
amendment,  it  will  be  seen  at  once,  did  not  meet  the  accusa- 
tions raised  by  Mr.  Disraeli.  It  simply  asserted  that  the  House 
was,  at  all  events,  glad  to  hear  there  was  to  be  no  interference 
in  the  war.  Lord  Palmerston,  however,  had  an  essentially 
practical  way  of  looking  at  every  question.  He  was  of  opinion, 
with  O'Connell,  that,  after  all,  the  verdict  is  the  thing.  He 
knew  he  could  not  get  the  verdict  on  the  particular  issues 
raised  by  Mr.  Disraeli,  but  he  was  in  good  hope  that  he  could 
get  it  on  the  policy  of  his  administration  generally. 

His  speech  closing  the  debate  was  a  masterpiece  not  of 
eloquence,  not  of  political  argument,  but  of  practical  Parlia- 
mentary tactics.  He  spoke,  as  was  his  fashion,  without  the 
aid  of  a  single  note.     It  was  a  wonderful  spectacle  that  of  the 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON,  261 

man  of  eighty,  thus  in  the  growing  morning  pouring  out  hia 
unbroken  stream  of  easy  effective  eloquence.  He  dropped  the 
particular  questions  connected  with  the  vote  of  censure  almost 
immediately,  and  went  into  a  long  review  of  the  whole  policy 
of  his  administration.  He  spoke  as  if  the  resolution  before 
the  House  were  a  proposal  to  impeach  the  Government  for 
the  entire  course  of  their  domestic  policy.  He  passed  ui 
triumphant  review  all  the  splendid  feats  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  accomplished  in  the  reduction  of  taxation ;  he  took  credit 
for  the  commercial  treaty  with  France,  and  for  other  achieve- 
ments in  which  at  the  time  of  their  accomplishment  he  had 
hardly  even  affected  to  feel  an  interest.  He  spoke  directly  at 
the  economical  Liberals ;  the  men  who  were  for  sound  finance 
and  freedom  of  international  commerce.  The  regular  Oppo- 
sition, as  he  well  knew,  would  vote  against  him  ;  the  regular 
supporters  of  the  Ministry  would  vote  for  him.  Nothing  could 
alter  the  course  to  be  taken  by  either  of  these  parties.  The 
advanced  Liberals,  the  men  whom  possibly  Palmerston  in  his 
heart  rather  despised  as  calculators  and  economists, — these 
might  be  affected  one  w^ay  or  the  other  by  the  manner  in 
which  he  addressed  himself  to  the  debate.  To  these  and 
at  these  he  spoke.  He  knew  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  the  one 
leading  man  m  the  Ministry  whom  they  regarded  with  full 
trust  and  admiration,  and  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  exploits  he 
virtually  rested  his  case.  His  speech  said  in  plain  words :  '  If 
you  vote  for  this  resolution  proposed  by  Mr.  Disraeli  you  turn 
Mr.  Gladstone  out  of  office ;  you  give  the  Tories,  who  under- 
stand nothing  about  Free  Trade,  and  who  opposed  the  French 
Commercial  Treaty,  an  opportunity  of  marring  all  that  he  has 
made.'  Some  of  Lord  Palmerston's  audience  were  a  little 
impatient  now  and  then.  '  What  has  all  this  to  do  with  the 
question  before  the  House  ?  '  was  murmured  from  more  than 
one  bench.  It  had  everything  to  do  with  the  question  that 
was  really  before  the  House.  That  question  was,  '  Shall 
Palmerston  remain  in  office,  or  shall  he  go  out  and  the  Tories 
come  in  ?  '  When  the  division  w^as  taken  Lord  Palmerston 
was  saved  by  a  majority  of  eighteen.  It  was  not  a  very 
briUiant  victory.  There  were  not  many  votes  to  spare.  But 
it  was  a  victory.  The  Conservative  miss  by  a  foot  was  aa 
good  for  Lord  Palmerston  as  a  miss  by  a  mile.  It  gave  him 
a  secure  tenure  of  office  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Such  as  it 
was,  the  victory  was  won  mainly  by  his  own  skill,  energy,  and 
astuteness,  by  the  ready  manner  m  which   he  evaded  the 


263       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xix. 

question  actually  in  debate,  and  rested  his  claim  to  acquittal 
on  services  which  no  one  proposed  to  disparage. 

That  Was  the  last  great  speech  made  by  Lord  Palmerston. 
That  was  the  last  great  occasion  on  which  he  was  called  upon 
to  address  the  House  of  Commons.  The  effort  was  worthy  of 
the  emergency,  and,  at  least  in  an  artistic  sense,  deserved 
success.  The  speech  exactly  served  its  purpose.  It  had  no 
brilliant  passages.  It  had  no  hint  of  an  elevated  thought. 
It  did  not  trouble  itself  with  any  profession  of  exalted  purpose 
or  principle.  It  did  not  contain  a  single  sentence  that  anyone 
w^ould  care  to  remember  after  the  emergency  had  passed  away. 
But  it  did  for  Lord  Palmerston  what  great  eloquence  might 
have  failed  to  do ;  what  a  great  orator  by  virtue  of  his  very 
genius  and  oratorical  instincts  might  only  have  marred.  It 
took  captive  the  wavering  minds,  and  it  carried  the  division. 

One  cannot  study  English  politics,  even  in  the  most 
superficial  way,  without  being  struck  by  the  singular 
regularity  with  which  they  are  governed  by  the  lav/  of 
action  and  reaction.  The  succession  of  ebb  and  flow  m  the 
tides  is  not  more  regular  and  more  certain.  A  season  of  poli- 
tical energy  is  sure  to  come  after  a  season  of  political  apathy. 
The  movement  of  reaction  against  Eeform  in  domestic 
policy  was  in  full  force  during  the  earlier  years  of  Lord 
Palmerston's  Government.  In  home  politics,  and  where 
finance  and  commercial  legislation  were  not  concerned, 
Palmerston  was  a  Conservative  Minister.  He  was  probably 
on  the  whole  more  highly  esteemed  among  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons  than  by  the 
rank  and  file  on  his  own  side.  Not  a  few  of  the  Conservative 
country  gentlemen  would  in  their  hearts  have  been  glad  if  he 
could  have  remained  Prime  Minister  for  ever.  Many  of  those 
who  voted,  with  their  characteristic  fidelity  to  party,  for 
Mr.  Disraeli's  resolution  of  censure,  were  glad  m  their  hearts 
that  Lord  Palmerston  came  safely  out  of  the  difficulty. 
But  as  the  years  went  on  there  w^ere  manifest  signs  of  the 
coming  and  inevitable  reaction.  One  of  the  most  striking 
of  these  indications  was  found  in  the  position  taken  by  Mr. 
Gladstone.  For  some  time  Mr.  Gladstone  had  been  more 
and  more  distinctly  identifying  himself  with  the  opinions  of 
the  advanced  Liberals.  The  advanced  Liberals  themselves 
were  of  two  sections  or  fractions,  working  together  almost 
always,  but  very  distinct  in  complexion ;  and  it  was  Mr. 
Gladstone's  fortune  to  be  drawn  by  his  sympathies  to  both 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON,  263 

ftlike.  He  was  of  course  drawn  towards  the  Manchester 
School  by  his  economic  views  ;  by  his  agreement  with  them 
on  all  subjects  relating  to  finance  and  to  freedom  of  commerce. 
But  the  Manchester  Liberals  were  for  non-intervention  in 
foreign  politics ;  and  they  carried  this  into  their  sympathies 
as  well  as  into  their  principles.  The  other  section  of  the 
advanced  Liberals  were  sometimes  even  flightily  eager  in  their 
S}Tiipathies  with  the  Liberal  movements  of  the  Continent. 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  in  communion  with  the  movements  of 
foreign  Liberals,  as  he  was  with  those  of  English  Free-traders 
and  economists.  He  was  therefore  qualified  to  stand  between 
both  sections  of  the  advanced  Liberals  of  England,  and  give 
one  hand  to  each.  During  the  debates  on  Italian  questions 
of  1860  and  1861  he  had  identified  himself  with  the  cause  of 
Italian  unity  and  independence. 

In  the  year  1864  Garibaldi  came  on  a  visit  to  England, 
and  was  received  in  London  with  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm, 
the  like  whereof  had  not  been  seen  since  Kossuth  first  passed 
down  Cheapside,  and  perhaps  was  not  seen  even  then.  At 
first  the  leading  men  of  nearly  all  parties  held  aloof  except 
Mr.  Gladstone.  He  was  among  the  very  first  and  most  cordial 
in  his  welcome  to  Garibaldi.  Then  the  Liberal  leaders  in 
general  thought  they  had  better  consult  for  their  popularity 
by  taking  Garibaldi  up.  Then  the  Conservative  leaders  too 
began  to  think  it  would  never  do  for  them  to  hold  back  when 
the  prospect  of  a  general  election  was  so  closely  overshadow- 
ing them,  and  they  plunged  into  the  Garibaldi  welcome.  The 
peerage  then  rushed  at  Garibaldi.  The  crowd  in  the  streets 
were  perfectly  sincere,  some  acclaiming  Garibaldi  because  they 
ha5.  a  vague  knowledge  that  he  had  done  brave  deeds  some- 
where, and  represented  a  cause  ;  others,  perhaps  the  majority, 
because  they  assumed  that  he  was  somehow  opposed  to  the 
Pope.  The  leaders  of  society  were  for  the  most  part  not 
sincere.  The  w^hole  thing  ended  in  a  quarrel  between  the 
aristocracy  and  the  democracy ;  and  Garibaldi  was  got  back 
to  his  island  somehow\  Mr.  Gladstone  was  one  of  the  few 
among  the  leaders  w4io  w^ere  undoubtedly  sincere,  and  the 
course  he  took  made  him  a  great  favourite  with  the  advanced 
Badicals. 

Mr.  Gladstone  had  given  other  indications  of  a  distmct 
tendency  to  pass  over  altogether  from  Conservatism,  and  even 
from  Peelism,  into  the  ranks  of  the  Radical  Reformers.  On 
May  11,  1864,  a  private  member  brought  on  a  motion  in  the 


264        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xix. 

House  of  Commons  for  the  reduction  of  the  borough  fran- 
chise from  lOZ.  rental  to  6^.     During  the  debate  that  followed 
Mr.  Gladstone  made  a  remarkable  declaration.     He  contended 
that  the  burden  of  proof  rested  upon  those  *  who  would  ex- 
clude  forty-nine   fiftieths  of  the   working   classes  from  the 
franchise ; '   'it  is  for  them  to  show  the  unworthiness,  the 
incapacity,  and  the  misconduct  of  the  working  class.'     '  I  say.' 
he  repeated,  '  that  every  man  who  is  not  presumably  incapaci- 
tated by  some  consideration  of  personal  unfitness  or  political 
danger,  is  morally  entitled  to  come  within  the  pale  of  the 
constitution.'     The  bill  was  rejected,  but  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Gladstone  gave  an  importance  to  the  debate  and  to  the  occa- 
sion which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  overrate.     The  position 
taken  up  by  all  Conservative  minds,  no  matter  to  which  side 
of  politics  their  owaiers  belonged,  had  been  that  the  claim 
must  be  made  out  for  those  seeking  an  extension  of  the  suffrage 
in  their  favour  ;  that  they  must  show  imperative  public  need, 
immense  and  clear  national  and  political  advantage,  to  justify 
the  concession  ;  that  the  mere  fact  of  their  desire  and  fitness 
for  the  franchise  ought  not  to  count  for  anything  in  the  con- 
sideration.    Mr.  Gladstone's  way  of  looking  at  the  question 
created  enthusiasm  on  the  one  side — consternation  and  anger 
on  the  other.     Early  in  the  following  session  there  was  a 
motion  introduced  by  Mr.  Uillwyn,  a  staunch  and  persevering 
Reformer,  declaring  that  the  position  of  the  Irish  State  Church 
was  unsatisfactory,  and  called  for  the  early  attention  of  her 
Majesty's  Government.     Mr.  Gladstone  spoke  on  the  motion, 
and  drew  a  contrast  between  the  State  Church  of  England 
and   that   of   Ireland,   pointing   out   that  the  Irish  Chui^li 
ministered  only  to  the  religious  wants  of  one-eighth  or  one- 
ninth  of  the  community  amid  which  it  was  established.     The 
eyes  of  all  Radical  Reformers,  therefore,  began  to  turn  to 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  the  future  Minister  of  Eeform  in  Church 
and  State.     He  became  from  the  same  moment  an  object  of 
distrust,  and  something  approaching  to  detestation,  in  the 

yes  of  all  steady-going  Conservatives. 

Meanwhile  there  were  many  changes  taking  place  in  the 
social  and  political  life  of  England.  Many  eminent  men 
passed  away  during  the  years  that  Lord  Palmerston  held  his 
almost  absolute   sway  over  the  House  of  Commons.     One 

man  we  may  mention  in  the  first  instance,  although  he  was 
no  politician,  and  his  death  in  no  wise  affected  the  prospects 

of  parties.     The  attention  of  the  English  people  was  calleii 


cii.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON.  265 

from  questions  of  foreign  policy  and  of  possible  intervention 
in  the  Danish  quarrel,  by  an  event  which  happened  on  the 
Christmas  eve  of  18G3.     That  day  it  became  known  through- 
out London  that  the  author  of  '  Vanity  Fair '  was  dead.     Mr. 
Thackeray  died  suddenly  at  the  house  in  Kensington  which 
he  had  lately  had  built  for  him  in  the  fashion  of  that  Queen 
Amie  period"  which  he  loved  and  had  illustrated  so  admirably. 
He  was  still  in  the  very  prime  of  life ;  no  one  had  expected 
that  his  career  was  so  soon  to  close.     It  had  not  been  in  any 
sense  a  long  career.     Success  had  come  somewhat  late  to 
him,  and  he  was  left  but  a  short  time  to  enjoy  it.     He  had 
established  himself  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  English 
novelists  ;  with  Fielding  and  Goldsmith  and  Miss  Austen  and 
Dickens.     He  had  been  a  literary  man  and  hardly  anything 
else ;  having  had  little  to  do  with  politics  or  political  journalism. 
Once  indeed  he  was  seized  with  a  sudden  ambition  to  take  a 
seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  at  the  general  election  of 
1857  he  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  city  of  Oxford 
in  opposition  to  Mr.  Cardwell.     He  was  not  elected ;  and  he 
seemed  to  accept  failure  cheerfully  as  a  hint  that  he  had  beicer 
keep  to  literary  work  for  the  future.     He  would  go  back  to  his 
author's  desk,  he  said  good-humouredly ;  and  he  kept  his 
word.     It  is  not  likely  he  would  have  been  a  parliamentary 
success.     He  had  no  gift  of  speech  and  had  but  little  interest 
in   the   details  of  party  politics.     His  political  views  were 
sentiments  rather   than   opinions.     It  is  not  true  that  suc- 
cess in  Parliament  is  incompatible  with  literary  distinction. 
Macaulay  and  Grote,  and  two  of  Thackeray's  own  craft.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  and  Lord  Lytton,  may  be  called  as  recent  wit- 
nesses to  disprove  that  common  impression.     But  these  were 
men  who  had  a  distinctly  political  object,  or  who  loved  political 
life,  and  were  only  following  their  star  when  they  sought  seats 
in  the  House  of  Commons.     Thackeray  had  no  such  vocation, 
and  would  have  been  as  much  out  of  place  in  parliamentary 
debate  as  a  painter  or  a  musician.     He  had  no  need  to  covet 
parliamentary  reputation.     As  it  was  well  said  when  the  news 
of  his  defeat  at  Oxford  reached  London,  the  Houses  of  Lords 
and   Commons   together   could  not   have   produced   '  Barry 
Lyndon '   and  '  Pendennis.'     His  early  death  was  a  source 
not  only  of  national  but  of  world-wide  regret.     It  eclipsed 
the  Christmaf/  gaiety  of  nations.     If  Thackeray  died  too  soon, 
it  was  only  too  soon  for  his  family  and  his  friends.     His  fame 
was  secure.     He  could  hardly  with  any  length  of  years  have 
added  a  cubit  to  his  literary  stature. 
12 


266        A   SHOR 7^  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES .     ch.  xix. 

A  whole  group  of  statesmen  had  passed  prematurely  away. 
Sir  James  Graham  had  died  after  several  years  of  a  quiet 
career ;  still  a  celebrity  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  not 
much  in  the  memory  of  the  public  outside  it.  One  of  his 
latest  speeches  in  Parliament  was  on  the  Chinese  war  of  18G0. 
On  the  last  day  of  the  session  of  1861,  and  when  almost  all 
the  other  members  had  left  the  House,  he  remained  for  a  while 
talking  with  a  friend  and  former  colleague,  and  as  they  were 
separating,  Sir  James  Graham  expressed  a  cheery  hope  that 
they  should  meet  on  the  first  day  of  the  next  session  in  the 
same  place.  But  Graham  died  in  the  following  October. 
Sidney  Herbert  had  died  a  few  months  before  in  the  same 
year.  Sidney  Herbert  had  been  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord 
Herbert  of  Lea.  He  had  entered  the  House  of  Lords  because 
his  breaking  health  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  stand  the 
wear  and  tear  of  life  in  the  Commons,  and  he  loved  politics  and 
public  affairs,  and  could  not  be  induced  to  renounce  them  and 
live  in  quiet.  He  was  a  man  of  great  gifts,  and  was  looked 
upon  as  a  prospective  Prime  Minister.  He  had  a  graceful  and 
gracious  bearing ;  he  was  an  able  administrator,  and  a  very 
skilful  and  persuasive  debater.  He  never  declaimed  ;  never 
even  tried  to  be  what  is  commonly  called  eloquent ;  but  his 
sentences  came  out  with  a  singularly  expressive  combination  of 
force  and  ease,  every  argument  telling,  every  stroke  having  the 
lightness  of  an  Eastern  champion's  sword-play.  He  had  high 
social  station,  and  was  in  every  way  fitted  to  stand  at  the  head 
of  English  public  affairs.  He  was  but  fifty-one  years  of  age 
when  he  died.  The  country  for  some  time  looked  on  Sir 
George  Lewis  as  a  man  likely  to  lead  an  administration ;  but 
he  too  passed  away  before  his  natural  time.  He  died  two  years 
after  Sir  James  Graham  and  Sidney  Herbert,  and  was  only 
some  fifty-seven  years  old  at  his  death.  Lord  Elgin  was  dead 
and  Lord  Canning ;  and  Lord  Dalhousie  had  been  some 
years  dead.  The  Duke  of  Newcastle  died  in  1864.  Nor  must 
we  omit  to  mention  the  death  of  Cardinal  Wiseman  on 
February  15,  1865.  Cardinal  Wiseman  had  outlived  the 
popular  clamour  once  raised  against  him  in  England.  There 
was  a  time  when  his  name  would  have  set  all  the  pulpit- 
drums  of  no-Popery  rattling ;  he  came  at  length  to  be 
respected  and  admired  everywhere  in  England  as  a  scholar  and 
a  man  of  ability.  He  was  a  devoted  ecclesiastic,  whose  zeal 
for  his  church  was  his  honour,  and  whose  earnest  labour  in  the 
work  he  was  set  to  do  had  shortened  his  busy  life. 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTOJST.  267 

During  the  time  from  the  first  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  in  the  United  States  to  its  close  all  these  men  were 
removed  from  the  scene,  and  the  Civil  War  was  hardly- 
over  wdien  Richard  Cobden  was  quietly  laid  in  an  English 
country  churchyard.  Mr.  Cobden  paid  a  visit  to  his  con- 
stituents of  Eochdale  in  November  1864,  and  spoke  to  a 
great  public  meeting  on  public  affairs,  and  he  did  not  appear 
to  have  lacked  any  of  his  usual  ease  and  energy.  This 
was  Cobden' s  last  speech.  He  did  not  come  up  to  London 
until  the  March  of  1865,  and  the  day  on  which  he  travelled 
was  so  bitterly  cold  that  the  bronchial  affection  from  which 
he  was  suffering  became  cruelly  aggravated.  He  sank 
rapidly,  and  on  April  2  he  died.  The  scene  in  the  House  of 
Commons  next  evening  was  very  touching.  Lord  Palmerston 
and  Mr.  Disraeli  both  spoke  of  Cobden  with  genuine  feeling 
and  sympathy ;  but  Mr.  Bright's  few  and  broken  words  were 
as  noble  an  epitaph  as  friendship  could  wish  for  the  grave  of  a 
great  and  a  good  man. 

The  Liberal  party  found  themselves  approaching  a  general 
election,  with  their  ranks  thinned  by  many  severe  losses. 
The  Government  had  lost  one  powerful  member  by  an 
Gvent  other  than  death.  The  Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  West- 
bury,  had  resigned  his  office  in  consequence  of  a  vote  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  Lord  Westbury  had  made  many  enemies. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  capacity  and  energy,  into  whose  nature 
the  scorn  of  forms  and  of  lesser  intelligences  entered  far  too 
freely.  His  character  was  somewhat  w^anting  in  the  dignity  of 
moral  elevation.  He  had  a  tongue  of  marvellous  bitterness. 
His  sarcastic  power  was  probably  unequalled  in  the  House  of 
Commons  while  he  sat  there ;  and  when  he  came  into  the 
House  of  Lords  he  fairly  took  away  the  breath  of  stately  and 
formal  peers  by  the  unsparing  manner  in  which  he  employed 
his  most  dangerous  gift.  His  style  of  cruel  irony  was  made  all 
the  more  effective  by  the  peculiar  suavity  of  the  tone  in  which 
he  gave  out  his  sarcasms  and  his  epithets.  With  a  face  that 
only  suggested  soft  bland  benevolence,  with  eyes  half  closed  as 
those  of  a  mediaeval  saint,  and  in  accents  of  subdued  melliflu- 
ous benignity,  the  Lord  Chancellor  was  wont  to  pour  out  a 
stream  of  irony  that  corroded  like  some  deadly  acid.  Such  a 
man  was  sure  to  make  enemies  ;  and  the  time  came  when,  in 
the  Scriptural  sense,  they  found  him  out.  He  had  been  lax  in 
his  manner  of  using  his  patronage.  Li  one  case  he  had 
allowed  an  official  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  retire,  and  to 


268        A   SHORT  HIS  TORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xix. 

receive  a  retiring  pension,  while  a  grave  charge  connected  with 
his  conduct  in  another  pubhc  office  was  to  Lord  Westbury's 
knowledge  impending  over  him ;  and  Lord  Westbury  had 
appointed  his  own  son  to  the  place  thus  vacated.  Thus  at 
first  sight  it  naturally  appeared  that  Lord  Westbury  had  sanc- 
tioned the  pensioning  oiff  of  a  public  servant,  against  whom  a 
serious  charge  was  still  awaiting  decision,  in  order  that  a  place 
might  be  found  for  the  Lord  Chancellor's  own  son. 

The  question  was  taken  up  by  the  House  of  Commons ; 
and  somewhat  unfortunately  taken  up  in  the  first  instance  by 
a  strong  political  opponent  of  the  Government.  On  July  3, 
1865,  Mr.  Ward  Hunt  moved  a  distinct  vote  of  censure  on  the 
Lord  Chancellor.  The  House  did  not  agree  to  the  resolution, 
which  would  have  branded  tlie  Lord  Chancellor's  conduct  as 
*  highly  reprehensible,  and  calculated  to  throw  discredit  on  the 
administration  of  the  high  offices  of  the  State.'  It,  however, 
accepted  an  amendment  which,  while  acquitting  Lord  West- 
bury of  any  corrupt  motive,  declared  that  the  granting  of  the 
pension  showed  a  laxity  of  practice  and  want  of  caution  with 
regard  to  the  public  interests  on  the  part  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. The  Government  were  not  able  to  resist  this  resolution. 
Lord  Palmerston  made  the  best  effort  he  could  to  save  the 
Lord  Chancellor ;  but  the  common  feeling  of  the  House  held 
that  the  words  of  the  amendment  were  not  too  strong  ;  and  the 
Government  had  to  bow  to  it.  The  Lord  Chancellor  imme- 
diately resigned  his  office.  No  other  course  was  fairly  open  to 
him.  The  Government  lost  a  man  of  singular  ability  and 
energy.  Many  thought,  when  all  was  done,  that  he  had  been 
somewhat  harshly  used.  He  would,  perhaps,  have  been 
greatly  surprised  himself  to  know  how  many  kindly  things 
were  said  of  him. 

The  hour  of  political  reaction  was  evidently  near  at  hand. 
Five  years  had  passed  away  since  the  withdrawal  of  Lord  John 
Eussell's  Eeform  Bill ;  and  five  years  may  represent  in  ordinary 
calculation  the  ebb  or  flow  of  the  political  tide.  The  dissolu- 
tion of  Parliament  was  near.  Lord  Derby  described  the  Speech 
from  the  Throne  at  the  opening  of  the  session  of  1805  as 
a  sort  of  address  very  proper  to  be  delivered  by  an  aged 
minister  to  a  moribund  Parliament.  The  Parliament  had 
run  its  course.  It  had  accomplished  the  rare  feat  of  living  out 
its  days,  and  having  to  die  by  simple  efflux  of  time.  On 
July  G,  1865,  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

The  first  blow  was  struck  in  the  City  of  London,  and  the 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON:  269 

Liberals  carried  all  the  seats.  Four  Liberals  were  elected.  Li 
Westminster  the  contest  was  somewhat  remarkable.  The  con- 
stituency of  Westminster  always  had  the  generous  ambition  to 
wish  to  be  represented  by  at  least  one  man  of  distinction. 
Mr.  Mill  was  induced  to  come  out  of  his  calm  retirement  in 
Avignon  and  accept  the  candidature  for  Westminster.  He 
issued  an  address  embodying  his  well-known  political  opinions. 
He  declined  to  look  after  local  business,  and  on  principle  he 
objected  to  pay  any  part  of  the  expenses  of  election.  It  was 
felt  to  be  a  somewhat  bold  experiment  to  put  forward  such  a 
man  as  Mill  among  the  candidates  for  the  representation  of  a 
popular  constituency.  His  opinions  were  extreme.  He  was 
not  known  to  belong  to  any  church  or  religious  denomination. 
He  was  a  philosopher,  and  English  political  organisations  do 
not  love  philosophers.  He  was  almost  absolutely  unknown  to 
his  countrymen  in  general.  Until  he  came  forward  as  a  leader  of 
the  agitation  in  favour  of  the  Northern  Cause  during  the  Civil 
War,  he  had  never,  so  far  as  we  Imow,  been  seen  on  an  Eng- 
lish political  platform.  Even  of  the  electors  of  Westminster, 
very  few  had  ever  seen  him  before  his  candidature.  Many  were 
under  the  vague  impression  that  he  was  a  clever  man  who 
wrote  wise  books  and  died  long  ago.  He  was  not  supposed  to 
have  any  liking  or  capacity  for  parliamentary  life.  More  than 
ten  years  before  it  was  known  to  a  few  that  he  had  been  mvited 
to  stand  for  an  Irish  county  and  had  declined.  That  was  at 
the  time  when  his  observations  on  the  Irish  land  tenure 
system  and  the  condition  of  Ireland  generally  had  filled  the 
hearts  of  many  Irishmen  with  delight  and  wonder— delight  and 
wonder  to  find  that  a  cold  English  philosopher  and  economist 
should  form  such  just  and  generous  opinions  about  Irish  ques- 
tions, and  should  express  them  with  such  a  noble  courage.  Since 
that  time  he  had  not  been  supposed  to  have  any  inclmation  for 
public  life  ;  nor  we  believe  had  any  serious  effort  been  made  to 
tempt  him  out  of  his  retirement.  The  idea  now  occurred  to  Mr. 
James  Beal,  a  popular  Westminster  politician,  and  he  pressed 
it  so  earnestly  on  ]Mill  as  a  public  duty  that  Mill  did  not  feel  at 
liberty  to  refuse.  Mill  was  one  of  the  few  men  who  have  only 
to  be  convinced  that  a  thing  is  incmnbent  on  them  as  a 
public  duty  to  set  about  doing  it  forthwith,  no  matter  how 
distasteful  it  might  be  to  them  personally,  or  what  excellent 
excuses  they  might  offer  for  leaving  the  duty  to  others.  He 
had  written  things  which  might  well  make  him  doubtful 
about  the  prudence  of  courting  the  suffrages  of  an  English 


270      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN-  TIMES.     CH.  xix. 

popular  constituency.  He  was  understood  to  be  a  rationalist ; 
he  was  a  supporter  of  many  political  opinions  that  seemed  to 
ordinary  persons  much  like  crotchets,  or  even  crazes.  He  had 
once  said  in  his  writings,  that  the  working  classes  in  England 
were  given  to  lying.  He  had  now  to  stand  up  on  platforms 
before  crowded  and  noisy  assemblies  where  everything  he 
had  ever  written  or  said  could  be  made  the  subject  of  question 
and  of  accusation,  and  with  enemies  outside  capable  of  tor- 
turing every  explanation  to  his  disadvantage.  A  man  of  inde- 
pendent opinions,  and  who  has  not  been  ashamed  to  change 
his  opinions  when  he  thought  them  wrong,  or  afraid  to  put  on 
record  each  opinion  in  the  time  when  he  held  to  it,  is  at  much 
disadvantage  on  the  hustings.  He  will  find  out  there  what  it 
is  to  have  written  books  and  to  have  enemies.  Mill  triumphed 
over  all  the  difficulties  by  downright  courage  and  honesty. 
When  asked  at  a  public  meeting  chiefly  composed  of  working 
men,  whether  he  had  ever  said  the  working  classes  were  given 
to  lying,  he  answered  straight  out,  *  I  did  ; '  a  bold  blunt  ad- 
mission without  any  qualification.  The  boldness  and  frankness 
of  the  reply  struck  home  to  the  manhood  of  the  working  men 
who  listened  to  him.  Here  they  saw  a  leader  who  would  never 
shrink  from  telling  them  the  truth.  They  greeted  his  answer 
with  vehement  applause,  and  Mr.  Mill  was  returned  to  Parlia- 
ment by  a  majority  of  some  hundreds  over  the  Conservative 
competitor. 

In  many  other  instances  there  was  a  marked  indication 
that  the  political  tide  had  turned  in  favour  of  Liberal  opinions. 
Mr.  Thomas  Hughes,  author  of  '  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,' 
was  returned  for  Lambeth.  Mr.  Duncan  M'Laren,  brother- 
in-law  of  Mr.  Bright,  and  an  advanced  Radical,  was  elected 
for  Edinburgh,  unseating  a  mild  Whig.  Mr.  Gr.  0.  Trevelyan, 
a  brilliant  young  Radical,  nephew  of  Macaulay,  came  into 
Parliament.  In  Ireland  some  men  of  strong  opinions,  of 
ability  and  of  high  character  found  seats  in  the  House  of 
Commons  for  the  first  time.  One  of  these  was  Mr.  J.  B. 
Dillon,  a  man  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  Irish  Rebellion 
of  1848.  Mr.  Dillon  had  lived  for  some  years  in  the  United 
States,  and  had  lately  returned  to  Ireland  under  an  amnesty. 
He  at  once  reassumed  a  leading  part  in  Irish  politics  and  won 
a  high  reputation  for  his  capacity  and  his  integrity.  He  pro- 
mised to  have  an  influential  part  in  bringing  together  the 
Irish  members  and  the  English  Radicals,  but  his  untimely 
death  cut  short  what  would  unquestionably  have  been  a  vcrj^ 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON.  271 

useful  career.  Wherever  there  was  a  change  ui  the  character 
of  the  new  ParHament  it  seemed  to  be  m  favour  of  advanced 
Reform.  It  was  not  merely  that  the  Tories  were  left  in  a 
minority,  but  that  so  many  mild  Whigs  had  been  removed  to 
give  place  to  genuine  Liberals.  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  spoke 
of  the  new  Parliament  as  one  which  had  distinctly  increased 
the  strength  and  the  following  of  Mr.  Bright.  No  one  could 
fail  to  see,  he  pointed  out,  that  Mr.  Bright  occupied  a  very 
different  position  now  from  that  which  he  had  held  in  the  late 
Parliament.  New  men  had  come  into  the  House  of  Commons, 
men  of  integrity  and  ability,  who  were  above  all  things 
advanced  Eeformers.  The  position  of  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
markedly  changed.  He  had  been  defeated  at  the  University  of 
Oxford  by  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy,  but  was  at  once  put  in 
nomination  for  South  Lancashire,  which  was  still  open,  and 
he  was  elected  there.  His  severance  from  the  University 
was  regarded  by  the  Liberals  as  his  political  emancipation. 
The  Pieformers  then  would  have  at  their  head  the  two  great 
Parliamentary  orators  (one  of  them  undoubtedly  the  future 
Prime  Minister),  and  the  philosophical  writer  and  thmker  of 
the  day.  This  Liberal  triumvirate,  as  they  were  called, 
would  have  behind  them  many  new  and  earnest  men,  to 
whom  their  words  would  be  a  law.  The  alarmed  Tories  said 
to  themselves  that  between  England  and  the  democratic 
flood  there  was  left  but  one  barrier,  and  that  was  in  the 
person  of  the  old  statesman  now  in  his  eighty-first  year,  of 
whom  more  and  more  doubtful  rumours  began  to  arrive  in 
London  every  day. 

Down  in  Hertfordshire  Lord  Palmerston  was  dying. 
Long  as  his  life  was,  if  counted  by  mere  years,  it  seems 
much  longer  still  when  we  consider  what  it  had  compassed, 
and  how  active  it  had  been  from  the  earliest  to  the  very  end. 
Many  men  were  older  than  Lord  Palmerston ;  he  left  more 
than  one  senior  behind  him.  But  they  were  for  the  most 
part  men  whose  work  had  long  been  done ;  men  who  had 
been  consigned  to  the  arm-chair  of  complete  inactivity.  Pal- 
merston was  a  hard  working  statesman  until  within  a  very 
fev/  days  of  his  death.  He  had  been  a  member  of  Parliament 
for  nearly  sixty  years.  He  entered  Parliament  for  the  first 
time  in  the  year  when  Byron,  like  himself  a  Harrow  boy, 
published  his  first  poems.  He  had  been  in  the  House  of 
Commons  for  thirty  years  when  the  Queen  came  to  the 
throne.  During  all  his  political  career  he  was  only  out  of 
office  for  rare  and  brief  seasons. 


272       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWiY  TIMES.     CH.  xix. 

It  was  only  during  the  session  of  1865  that  Lord  Pahner- 
ston  began  to  give  evidence  that  he  was  suffering  severely  at 
last  from  that  affliction  which  has  been  called  the  most 
terrible  of  all  diseases — old  age.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  that 
year  he  had,  despite  his  occasional  fits  of  gout,  scarcely  shown 
any  signs  of  actual  decay.  But  during  the  session  of  1865 
Lord  Palmerston  suffered  much  for  some  of  the  later  months. 
His  eyesight  had  become  very  weak,  and  even  with  the 
help  of  strong  glasses  he  found  it  difficult  to  read.  He  was 
getting  feeble  in  every  way.  He  ceased  to  have  that  joy 
of  the  strife  which  inspired  him  during  Parliamentary  debate 
even  up  to  the  attainment  of  his  eightieth  year.  He  had 
kept  up  his  bodily  vigour  and  the  youthful  elasticity  of  hi? 
spirits  so  long,  that  it  must  have  come  on  him  with  the 
shock  of  a  painful  surprise  when  he  first  found  that  his  frame 
and  his  nerves  were  beyond  doubt  giving  way,  and  that  he  too 
must  succumb  to  the  cruel  influence  of  years.  The  collapse 
of  his  vigour  came  on  almost  at  a  stroke.  Lord  Palmerston 
began  to  discontinue  his  attendances  at  the  House  ;  when  he 
did  attend,  it  was  evident  that  he  went  through  his  Parlia- 
mentary duties  with  difficulty  and  even  with  pain.  The 
Tiverton  election  on  the  dissolution  of  Parliament  was  his 
last  public  appearance.  He  went  from  Tiverton  to  Brocket, 
in  Hertfordshire,  a  place  which  Lady  Palmerston  had  in- 
herited from  Lord  Melbourne,  her  brother  ;  and  there  he  re- 
mained. The  gout  had  become  very  serious  now.  It  had  flown 
to  a  dangerous  place ;  and  Lord  Palmerston  had  made  the 
danger  greater  by  venturing  with  his  too  youthful  energy  to 
ride  out  before  he  had  nearly  recovered  from  one  severe 
attack.  On  October  17  a  bulletin  was  issued,  announcing 
that  Lord  Palmerston  had  been  seriously  ill,  in  consequence 
of  having  taken  cold,  but  that  he  had  been  steadily  improving 
for  three  days,  and  was  then  much  better.  Somehow  thia 
announcement  failed  to  reassure  people  in  London.  Many 
had  only  then  for  the  first  time  heard  that  Palmerston  was  ill, 
and  the  bare  mention  of  the  fact  fell  ominously  on  the  ear  of  the 
public.  The  very  next  morning  these  suspicions  were  confirmed. 
It  was  announced  that  Lord  Pahnerston's  condition  had  sud- 
denly altered  for  the  worse,  and  that  he  was  gradually  sinking. 
Then  everyone  knew  that  the  end  was  near.  There  was  no  sur- 
prise when  the  news  came  next  day  that  Palmerston  was  dead. 
He  died  on  October  18.  Had  he  only  lived  two  days  longer 
he  would  have  completed  his  eighty-first  year.    He  was  buried 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERS  TON'.  273 

in  Westminster  Abbey  with  public  honours  on  October  27. 
No  man  since  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  WelHngton  had  filled 
so  conspicuous  a  place  in  the  public  mind.  No  man  had 
enjoyed  anything  like  the  same  amount  of  popularity.  He  died 
at  the  moment  when  that  popularity  had  reachedits  very  zenith. 
It  had  become  the  fashion  of  the  day  to  praise  all  he  said  and 
all  he  did.  It  was  the  settled  canon  of  the  ordinary  English- 
man's faith  that  what  Palmerston  said  England  must  feel.  To 
stand  forward  as  the  opponent,  or  even  the  critic,  of  any- 
thing done  or  favoured  by  him  was  to  be  unpopular  and  un- 
patriotic. Lord  Palmerston  had  certainly  lived  long  enough  in 
years,  in  enjoyment,  in  fame. 

The  regret  for  Palmerston  was  very  general  and  very 
genuine.  Privately,  he  can  hardly  have  had  any  enemies. 
He  had  a  kindly  heart,  which  won  on  all  people  who  came 
near  him.  He  had  no  enduring  enmities  or  capricious 
dislikes ;  and  it  was  therefore  very  hard  for  ill-feeling  to 
live  in  his  beaming,  hiendly  presence.  He  never  disliked 
men  merely  because  he  had  often  to  encounter  them  in 
political  war.  He  tried  his  best  to  give  them  as  good  as 
they  brought,  and  he  bore  no  malice.  There  were  some  men 
whom  he  disliked,  but  they  were  men  who  for  one  reason  or 
another  stood  persistently  in  his  way,  and  who  he  fancied  he 
had  reason  to  believe  had  acted  treacherously  towards  him. 
His  manners  were  frank  and  genial  rather  than  polished ;  and 
his  is  one  of  the  rare  instances  in  which  a  man  contrived 
always  to  keep  up  his  personal  dignity  without  any  stateliness 
of  bearing  and  tone.  He  was  a  model  combatant ;  when  the 
combat  was  over,  he  was  ready  to  sit  down  by  his  antagonist's 
side  and  be  his  friend,  and  talk  over  their  experiences  and 
exploits.  He  was  absolutely  free  fi-om  affectation.  This  very 
fact  gave  sometimes  an  air  almost  oi  roughness  to  his  manners, 
he  could  be  so  plain-spoken  and  downright  when  suddenly 
called  on  to  express  his  mind.  Personally  truthful  and  honour- 
able of  course  it  would  be  superfluous  to  pronounce  him.  But 
Palmerston  was  too  often  willing  to  distinguish  between  the 
personal  and  the  political  integrity  of  a  statesman.  The 
gravest  errors  of  this  kind  which  Palmerston  had  committed 
were  committed  for  an  earlier  generation.  The  general  public 
of  1865  took  small  account  of  them.  Not  many  would  have 
cared  much  then  about  the  grim  story  of  Sir  Alexander  Bunies' 
despatches,  or  the  manner  in  which  Palmerston  had  played 
with  the  hopes  of  foreign  Liberalism,  conducting  it  more  than 

12* 


274      ^   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  xix. 

once  rather  to  its  grave  than  to  its  triumph.  These  things 
lived  only  in  the  minds  of  a  few  at  the  time  when  the  news  of 
his  death  came,  and  even  of  that  few  not  many  were  anxious 
to  dwell  upon  them. 

Lord  Palmerston  is  not  to  be  judged  by  his  domestic  policy. 
Palmerston  was  himself  only  in  the  Foreign  Office  and  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  In  both  alike  the  recognition  of  his  true 
capacity  came  very  late.  His  Parliamentary  training  had  been 
perfected  before  its  success  was  acknowledged.  He  was  there- 
fore able  to  use  his  faculties  at  any  given  moment  to  their 
fullest  stretch.  He  could  always  count  on  them.  They  had 
been  so  well  drilled  by  long  practice  that  they  would  instantly 
come  at  call.  He  understood  the  moods  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons to  perfection.  He  could  play  upon  those  moods  as  a  per- 
former does  upon  the  keys  of  an  instrument.  He  saw  what 
men  were  in  the  mood  to  do,  and  he  did  it ;  and  they  were 
clear  that  that  must  be  a  great  leader  who  led  them  just 
whither  they  felt  inclined  to  go.  Much  earnestness  he  knew 
bored  the  House,  and  he  took  care  never  to  be  much  in 
earnest.  He  left  it  to  others  to  be  eloquent.  Lord  Palmer- 
ston never  cared  to  go  deeper  in  his  speeches  than  the  surface 
in  everything.  He  had  no  splendid  phraseology  ;  and  probably 
would  not  have  cared  to  make  any  display  of  splendid  phrase- 
ology even  if  he  had  the  gift.  No  speech  of  his  would  be  read 
except  for  the  present  interest  of  the  subject.  No  passages 
from  Lord  Palmerston  are  quoted  by  anybody.  He  always 
selected,  and  doubtless  by  a  kind  of  instinct,  not  the  argu- 
ments which  were  most  logically  cogent,  but  those  which 
\^ere  most  likely  to  suit  the  character  and  the  temper  of  the 
audience  he  happened  to  be  addressing.  He  spoke  for  his 
hearers,  not  for  himself ;  to  affect  the  votes  of  those  to  whom 
he  was  appealing,  not  for  the  sake  of  expressing  any  deep 
irrepressible  convictions  of  his  own.  He  never  talked  over 
the  heads  of  his  audience,  or  compelled  them  to  strain  their 
intellects  in  order  to  keep  pace  with  his  flights.  No  other 
statesman  of  our  time  could  interpose  so  dexterously  just 
before  the  division  to  break  the  effect  of  some  telling  speech 
against  him,  and  to  bring  the  House  into  a  frame  of  mind  for 
regarding  all  that  had  been  done  by  the  Opposition  as  a  mere 
piece  of  political  ceremonial,  gone  through  in  deference  to  the 
traditions  or  the  formal  necessities  of  party,  on  which  it  would 
bo  a  waste  of  time  to  bestow  serious  thought. 

The  jests  of  Lord  Palmerston  always  had  a  purpose  iu  them, 


CH.  XIX.         THE  LAST  OF  LORD  PALMERSTON,  275 

and  were  better  adapted  to  the  occasion  and  the  moment  than 
the  repartees  of  the  best  debater  in  the  House.  At  one  time, 
indeed,  he  flung  his  jests  and  personahties  about  in  somewhat 
too  reckless  a  fashion,  and  he  made  many  enemies.  But  of 
late  years,  whether  from  gromng  discretion  or  kindly  feeling, 
lie  seldom  indulged  in  any  pleasantries  that  could  wound  or 
offend.  During  his  last  Parliament  he  represented  to  the  full 
the  average  head  and  heart  of  a  House  of  Commons  singularly 
devoid  of  high  ambition  or  steady  purpose  ;  a  House  peculiarly 
intolerant  of  eccentricity,  especially  if  it  were  that  of  genius ; 
impatient  of  having  its  feelings  long  strained  in  any  one 
direction,  delighting  only  in  ephemeral  interests  and  excite- 
ments ;  hostile  to  anything  which  drew  heavily  on  the  energy 
or  the  intelligence.  Such  a  House  naturally  acknowledged  a 
heavy  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  statesman  who  never  either 
puzzled  or  bored  them.  Men  who  distrusted  Mr.  Disraeli's 
antitheses,  and  were  frightened  by  Mr.  Gladstone's  earnestness, 
found  as  much  relief  in  the  easy,  pleasant,  straightforward 
talk  of  Lord  Palmerston,  as  a  schoolboy  finds  in  a  game  of 
marbles  after  a  problem  or  a  sermon. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    NEW   GOYEENMENT. 

Lord  Eussell  was  invited  by  the  Queen  to  form  a  Govern- 
ment after  the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston.  According  to 
some  rumours  the  opportunity  would  be  taken  to  admit  the 
Eadical  element  to  an  influence  in  the  actual  councils  of  the 
nation  such  as  it  had  never  enjoyed  before,  and  such  as  its 
midoubted  strength  in  Parliament  and  the  country  now 
entitled  it  to  have.  The  only  changes,  however,  in  the 
Cabinet  were  that  Lord  Eussell  became  Prime  Minister,  and 
that  Lord  Clarendon,  who  had  been  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy 
of  Lancaster,  succeeded  him  as  Foreign  Secretary.  One  or 
two  new  men  were  brought  into  offices  which  did  not  give  a 
seat  in  the  Cabinet.  Amiong  these  were  Mr.  Forster,  who 
became  Under-Secretary  for  the  Colonies  in  the  room  01  Mr. 
Chichester  Fortescue,  now  Irish  Secretary,  and  Mr.  Goschen, 
who  succeeded  Mr.  Hutt  as  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade.     Both  Mr.  Forster  and  Mr.  Goschen  soon  afterwards 


276        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN"  'I IMES.     ch.  xx. 

came  to  hold  high  official  position,  and  to  have  seats  m  the 
Cabinet.  In  each  instance  the  appointment  was  a  concession 
to  the  growing  Liberal  feeling  of  the  day ;  but  the  concession 
w^as  slight  and  cautious.  The  country  knew  little  about  either 
Mr.  Forster  or  Mr.  Goschen  at  the  time  ;  and  it  will  easily 
be  imagined  that  those  who  thought  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  for 
Mr.  Bright  w^as  due  to  the  people  more  even  than  to  the  man, 
and  who  had  some  hopes  of  seeing  a  similar  place  offered  to 
Mr.  Mill,  were  not  satisfied  by  the  arrangement  which  called 
two  comparatively  obscure  men  to  unimportant  office.  The 
outer  public  did  not  quite  appreciate  the  difficulties  which  a 
Liberal  minister  had  to  encounter  in  compromising  between 
the  Whigs  and  the  Radicals.  The  Whigs  included  almost 
all  the  members  of  the  party  who  were  really  influential  by 
virtue  of  hereditary  rank  and  noble  station.  It  was  impossible 
to  overlook  their  claims.  Some  of  the  Whigs  probably  looked 
with  alarm  enough  at  the  one  serious  change  brought  about  by 
the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston  :  the  change  which  made  Mr. 
Gladstone  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

Meanwhile  there  were  some  important  changes  in  the  actual 
condition  of  things.  The  House  of  Commons,  elected  just 
before  Lord  Palmerston's  death,  was  in  many  respects  a  far 
difierent  House  from  that  which  it  had  been  his  last  ministerial 
act  to  dissolve.  Death  had  made  many  changes.  There  v/ere 
changes,  too,  not  brought  about  by  death.  The  Lord  John 
Kussell  of  the  Eeform  Bill  had  been  made  a  Peer,  and  sat  as 
Earl  Russell  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Mr.  Lowe,  one  of  the 
ablest  and  keenest  of  political  critics,  who  had  for  a  while 
been  shut  down  under  the  responsibilities  of  office,  was  a  free 
lance  once  more.  Mr.  Lowe,  who  had  before  that  held  ofiice 
two  or  three  times,  was  Vice-President  of  the  Committee  of 
Council  on  Education  from  the  beginning  of  Lord  Palmerston's 
administration  until  April  18G4.  At  that  time  a  vote  of 
censure  was  carried  against  his  department,  in  other  words 
against  himself,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  lor 
alleged  '  mutilation '  of  the  reports  of  the  Inspectors  of 
Schools,  done,  as  it  was  urged,  in  order  to  bring  the  reports 
into  seeming  harmony  with  the  educational  views  entertained 
by  the  Committee  of  Council.  Lord  Robert  Cecil  introduced 
the  resolution  in  a  speech  singularly  bitter  and  oftensive. 
The  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  101  to  93.  Mr, 
Lowe  instantly  resigned  his  office  ;  but  he  did  not  allow  the 
matter   to   rest   there.     He   obtained   the  appointment  of  a 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  277 

committee  to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject ;  and  the  result 
of  the  inquiry  was  not  only  that  Mr.  Lowe  was  entirely 
exonerated  from  the  charge  made  against  him,  but  that  the 
resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  actually  rescinded. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  Mr.  Lowe  felt  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  which  he  was  a  member  had  not  given  him  all  the 
support  he  might  have  expected.  It  is  certain  that  if  Lord 
Palmerston  and  his  leading  colleagues  had  thrown  any  great 
energy  into  their  support  of  him,  the  vote  of  censure  never 
could  have  been  carried,  and  would  not  have  had  to  be 
rescinded.  This  fact  was  brought  back  to  the  memory  of 
many  not  long  after,  when  Mr.  Lowe,  still  an  outsider,  be- 
came the  very  Coriolanus  of  a  sudden  movement  against  the 
Reform  policy  of  a  Liberal  Government.  On  the  other  hand, 
Mr.  Layard,  once  a  daring  and  somewhat  reckless  opponent 
of  Government  and  governments,  had  been  bound  over  to 
the  peace,  quietly  enmeshed  in  the  discipline  of  subordinate 
office.  Yet  the  former  fire  was  not  wholly  gone  ;  it  flamed 
up  again  on  opportunity  given.  Perhaps  Mr.  Layard  proved 
most  formidable  to  his  own  colleagues,  when  he  sometimes  had 
to  come  into  the  ring  to  sustain  their  common  cause.  The 
old  vigour  of  the  professional  gladiator  occasionally  drove  him 
a  little  too  heedlessly  against  the  Opposition.  So  combative 
a  temperament  found  it  hard  to  submit  always  to  the  prosaic 
rigour  of  mere  fact  and  the  proprieties  of  official  decorum. 

The  change  in  the  leadership  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  of  course  the  most  remarkable,  and  the  most  momen- 
tous, of  the  alterations  that  had  taken  place.  From  Lord 
Palmerston,  admired  almost  to  hero-worship  by  Whigs  and 
Conservatives,  the  foremost  position  had  suddenly  passed  to 
Mr.  Gladstone,  whose  admirers  were  the  most  extreme  of 
the  Liberals,  and  who  was  distrusted  and  dreaded  by  all  of 
Conservative  instincts  and  sympathies,  on  the  one  side  of  the 
House  as  well  as  on  the  other.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  j\Ir. 
Disraeli  were  now  brought  directly  face  to  face.  One  led  the 
House,  the  other  led  the  Opposition.  With  so  many  points 
of  difference,  and  even  of  contrast,  there  was  one  slight 
resemblance  in  the  political  situation  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
Mr.  Disraeli.  Each  was  looked  on  with  a  certam  doubt  and 
dread  by  a  considerable  number  of  his  own  followers.  It  is 
evident  that  in  such  a  state  of  things  the  strategical  advantage 
lay  with  the  leader  of  Opposition.  He  had  not  to  take  the 
initiative  in  anything,  and  the  least  loyal  of  his   followers 


278       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES,     CH.  xx 

would  cordially  serve  under  him  in  any  effort  to  thwart  a 
movement  made  by  the  Ministry.  It  came  to  be  seen  hoW' 
ever  before  long  that  the  Conservative  leader  was  able  to 
persuade  his  party  to  accept  those  very  changes  against  which 
some  of  the  followers  of  Mr.  Gladstone  were  found  ready  to 
revolt.  In  order  that  some  of  the  events  to  follow  may  not 
appear  very  mysterious,  it  is  wxll  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
formation  of  the  new  Ministry  under  Lord  Eussell  had  by  no 
means  given  all  the  satisfaction  to  certain  sections  of  the 
Liberal  party  which  they  believed  themselves  entitled  to 
expect.  Some  were  displeased  because  the  new  Government 
was  not  Eadical  enough.  Some  were  alarmed  because  they 
fancied  it  was  likely  to  go  too  far  for  the  purpose  of  pleasing 
the  Kadicals.  Some  were  vexed  because  men  whom  they 
looked  up  to  as  their  natural  leaders  had  not  been  invited  to 
office.  A  few  were  annoyed  because  their  own  personal 
claims  had  been  overlooked.  One  thing  was  certain  :  the 
Government  must  make  a  distinct  move  of  some  kind  in 
the  direction  of  Eeform.  So  many  new  and  energetic 
Liberals  and  Radicals  had  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
now  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  Liberal  Government 
to  hold  office  on  the  terms  which  had  of  late  been  conceded 
to  Lord  Palmerston.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  always  been  credited 
with  a  sensitive  earnestness  of  temper  which  was  commonly 
believed  to  have  given  trouble  to  his  more  worldly  and  easy- 
going colleagues  in  the  Cabinet  of  Lord  Palmerston.  It  was 
to  many  people  a  problem  of  deep  interest  to  see  w^iether  the 
genius  of  Mr.  Gladstone  would  prove  equal  to  the  trying  task 
of  leadership  under  circumstances  of  such  peculiar  difficulty. 
Tact,  according  to  many,  was  the  quality  needed  for  the  work 
— not  genius. 

Some  new  men  were  coming  up  on  both  sides  of  the 
political  field.  Among  these  we  have  already  mentioned  Mr. 
Forster,  who  had  taken  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  debates  on 
the  American  Civil  War.  Mr.  Forster  was  a  man  of  con- 
siderable Parliamentary  aptitude  ;  a  debater,  who  though  not 
pretending  to  eloquence,  was  argumentative,  vigorous,  and 
persuasive.  He  had  practical  knowledge  of  English  politics 
and  social  affairs,  and  was  thoroughly  representative  of  a  very 
solid  body  of  English  public  opinion.  In  the  House  of  Lords 
the  Duke  of  Argyll  was  beginning  to  take  a  prominent  and 
even  a  leading  place.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  would  have  passed 
as  a  middle-aged  man  in  ordinary  life,  but  he  was  looked  oa 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT,  279 

by  many  as  a  sort  of  boy  in  politics.  He  had,  indeed,  begun 
life  very  soon.  At  this  time  he  was  some  forty-three  years  of 
age,  and  he  had  been  a  prominent  pubhc  man  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  The  Duke  of  Argyll,  then  Marquis  of  Lome, 
was  only  nineteen  years  old  when  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  called 
'  Advice  to  the  Peers.'  A  little  later  he  engaged  in  the 
famous  struggle  concerning  the  freedom  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  which  resulted  in  the  great  secession  headed 
by  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  foundation  of  the  Free  Church. 
He  became  Duke  of  Argyll  on  the  death  of  his  father  in 
1847.  He  did  battle  in  the  House  of  Lords  as  he  had  done 
out  of  it.  He  distinguished  himself  by  plunging  almost 
instantaneously  into  the  thick  of  debate.  He  very  much 
astonished  the  staid  and  formal  peers,  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  discussion  conducted  in  measured  tones,  and 
with  awful  show  of  deference  to  age  and  political  rtanding. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  spoke  upon  any  and  every  subject  with 
astonishing  fluency,  and  without  the  slightest  reverence  for 
years  and  authority.  The  general  impression  of  the  House 
of  Lords  for  a  long  time  was  that  youthful  audacity,  and 
nothing  else,  was  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll ; 
and  for  a  long  time  the  Duke  of  Argyll  did  a  good  deal  to 
support  that  impression.  After  a  while  he  began  to  show 
that  there  was  more  in  him  than  self-confidence.  The  House 
of  Lords  found  that  he  really  knew  a  good  deal,  and  had  a 
wonderfully  clear  head,  and  they  learned  to  endure  liia 
dogmatic  and  professorial  ways  ;  but  he  never  grew  to  be 
popular  amongst  them.  His  style  was  far  too  self-assured ; 
his  faith  in  his  own  superiority  to  everybody  else  was  too 
evident  to  allow  of  his  having  many  enthusiastic  admirers. 
He  soon,  however,  got  into  high  office.  With  his  rank,  his 
talents,  and  his  energy,  such  a  thing  was  inevitable.  He 
joined  the  Government  of  Lord  Aberdeen  in  1852  as  Lord 
Privy  Seal,  holding  an  office  of  dignity,  but  no  special  duties, 
the  occupant  of  which  has  only  to  give  his  assistance  in 
council  and  general  debate.  He  was  afterwards  Postmaster- 
General  for  two  or  three  years.  Under  Lord  Palmerston,  in 
1859,  he  became  Lord  Privy  Seal  again,  and  he  retained  that 
office  in  the  Cabinet  of  Lord  Eussell. 

There  were  some  rising  men  on  the  Tory  side.  Sir  Hugh 
Cairns,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor  and  a  peer,  had  fought  hia 
way  by  sheer  talent  and  energy  into  the  front  rank  of  Opposi- 
tion.    A  lawyer  from  Belfast,  and  the  son  of  middle- class 


2So       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.      CH.  XX. 

parents,  lie  had  risen  into  celebrity  and  influence  wliile  yet  he 
was  in  the  very  prime  of  life.  He  was  a  lawyer  whose  Imow- 
ledge  of  his  own  craft  might  fairly  be  called  profomid.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  effective  debaters  in  Parliament.  His 
resources  of  telling  argument  were  almost  inexhaustible,  and 
his  training  at  the  bar  gave  him  the  faculty  of  making  the 
best  at  the  shortest  notice  of  all  the  facts  he  was  able  to  bring 
to  bear  on  any  question  of  controversy.  He  showed  more  than 
once  that  he  was  capable  of  pouring  out  an  animated  and  even 
a  passionate  invective.  An  orator  in  the  highest  sense  he 
certainly  was  not.  No  gleam  of  imagination  softened  or 
brightened  his  lithe  and  nervous  logic.  No  deep  feeling  ani- 
mated and  inspired  it.  His  speeches  were  arguments  not 
eloquence  ;  instruments  not  literature.  But  he  was  on  the 
whole  the  greatest  political  lawyer  since  Lyndhurst ;  and  he 
was  probably  a  sounder  lawyer  than  Lyndhurst.  He  had 
above  all  things  skill  and  discretion.  Sir  Stafford  Northcote 
was  a  man  of  ability,  who  had  an  excellent  financial  training 
under  no  less  a  teacher  than  Mr.  Gladstone  himself.  But  Sir 
Stafford  Northcote,  although  a  fluent  speaker,  was  not  a 
great  debater,  and  moreover  he  had  but  little  of  the  genuine 
Tory  in  him.  He  was  a  man  of  far  too  modern  a  spirit  and 
training  to  be  a  genuine  Tory.  He  was  not  one  whit  more 
Conservative  than  most  of  the  Whigs.  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy, 
afterwards  Lord  Cranbrook,  was  a  man  of  ingrained  Tory 
instincts  rather  than  convictions.  He  was  a  powerful  speaker 
of  the  rattling  declamatory  kind  ;  fluent  as  the  sand  in  an  hour- 
glass is  fluent ;  stirring  as  the  roll  of  a  drum  is  stirring ; 
sometimes  dry  as  the  sand  and  empty  as  the  drum.  A  man 
of  far  higher  ability  and  of  really  great  promise  was  Lord 
Kobert  Cecil,  afterwards  Lord  Cranborne,  and  now  Marquis  of 
Salisbury.  Lord  Eobert  Cecil  was  at  this  time  the  ablest  scion 
of  noble  Toryism  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  was  younger 
than  Lord  Stanley,  and  he  had  not  Lord  Stanley's  solidity, 
caution,  or  political  information.  But  he  had  more  originality ; 
he  had  brilliant  ideas  ;  he  was  ready  in  debate  ;  and  he  had  a 
positive  genius  for  saying  bitter  things  in  the  bitterest  tone. 
The  younger  son  of  a  great  peer,  he  had  at  one  time  no 
apparent  chance  of  succeeding  to  the  title  and  the  estates. 
He  had  accepted  honourable  poverty,  and  was  glad  to  help  out 
his  means  by  the  use  of  his  very  clever  pen.  He  wrote  in 
several  publications,  it  was  said ;  especially  in  the  Qnartcrly 
Heview,  the  time-honoured  and  somewhat  time-worn  organ 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  281 

of  Toryism  ;  and  after  a  while  certain  political  articles  in  the 
Quarterly  came  to  be  identified  mth  his  name.  He  was  an 
ultra-Tory ;  a  Tory  on  principle,  who  would  hear  of  no  com- 
promise. One  great  object  of  his  political  writings  appeared 
to  be  to  denounce  Mr.  Disraeli,  his  titular  leader,  and  to  warn 
the  party  against  him.  For  a  long  time  he  was  disliked  by 
most  persons  in  the  House  of  Commons.  His  gestures  were 
ungainly  ;  his  voice  was  singularly  unmusical  and  harsh  ;  and 
the  extraordinary  and  wanton  bitterness  of  his  tongue  set  the 
ordinary  listeners  against  him.  He  seemed  to  take  a  positive 
delight  in  being  gratuitously  offensive.  Lord  Eobert  Cecil, 
therefore, although  a  genuine  Tory,  or  perhaps  because  he  was  a 
genuine  Tory,  could  not  as  yet  be  looked  upon  as  a  man  likely 
to  render  great  service  to  his  party.  He  was  just  as  likely  to 
turn  against  them  at  some  moment  of  political  importance. 
He  would  not  fall  in  with  the  discipline  of  the  party ;  he 
would  not  subject  his  opinions  or  his  caprices  to  its  supposed 
interests.  Some  men  on  his  own  side  of  the  House  disliked 
him.  Many  feared  him ;  some  few  admired  him  ;  no  one 
regarded  him  as  a  trustworthy  party  man. 

Lord  Eussell's  Government  had  hardly  come  into  power 
before  they  found  that  some  troublesome  business  awaited  them, 
and  that  the  trouble  as  usual  had  arisen  in  a  wholly  unthought- 
of  quarter.  For  some  weeks  there  was  hardly  anything  talked 
of,  we  might  almost  say  hardly  anything  thought  of,  in  England, 
but  the  story  of  the  rebellion  that  had  taken  place  in  the  island 
of  Jamaica,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  had  been  suppressed 
and  punished.  The  first  story  came  from  English  officers  and 
soldiers  who  had  themselves  helped  to  crush  or  to  punish  the 
supposed  rebellion.  All  that  the  public  here  could  gather 
from  the  first  iiarratives  that  found  their  way  into  print  was, 
that  a  negro  insurrection  had  broken  out  in  Jamaica,  and  that 
it  had  been  promptly  crushed ;  but  that  its  suppression  seemed 
to  have  been  accompanied  by  a  very  carnival  of  cruelty  on  the 
part  of  the  soldiers  and  their  volunteer  auxiliaries.  Some  of 
the  letters  sent  home  reeked  with  blood.  Li  these  letters 
there  was  no  question  of  contending  with  or  suppressing  an 
insurrection.  The  insurrection,  such  as  it  was,  had  been  sup- 
pressed. The  writers  only  gave  a  description  of  a  sort  of  hunt- 
ing expedition  among  the  negro  inhabitants  for  the  purpose  of 
hanging  and  flogging.  It  also  became  known  that  a  coloured 
member  of  the  Jamaica  House  of  Assembly,  a  man  named 
George  WiUiam  Gordon,  who  was  suspected  of  inciting  the 


282      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.       cii,  xx. 

rebellion,  and  had  surrendered  himself  at  Kingston,  was  put 
on  board  an  English  war  vessel  there,  taken  to  Morant  Bay, 
where  martial  law  had  been  proclaimed,  tried  by  a  sort  of  drum- 
head court-martial,  and  instantly  hanged. 

Such  news  naturally  created  a  profound  sensation  in 
England.  The  Aborigines'  Protection  Society,  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  and  other  philanthropic  bodies,  organised  a 
deputation,  immense  in  its  numbers,  and  of  great  influence  as 
regarded  its  composition,  to  wait  on  Mr.  Cardwell,  Secretary 
for  the  Colonies,  at  the  Colonial  Office,  and  urge  on  him  the 
necessity  of  instituting  a  full  inquiry  and  recalling  Governor 
Eyre.  The  deputation  was  so  numerous  that  it  had  to  be 
received  in  a  great  public  room,  and  indeed  the  whole  scene 
was  more  like  that  presented  by  some  large  popular  meeting 
than  by  a  deputation  to  a  minister.  Mr.  Cardwell  suspended 
Mr.  Eyre  temporarily  from  his  functions  as  Governor,  and 
sent  out  a  Commission  of  Inquiry  to  investigate  the  whole 
history  of  the  rebellion  and  the  repression,  and  to  report  to 
the  Government.  The  Commission  held  a  very  long  and 
careful  inquiry.  The  history  of  the  events  in  Jamaica 
formed  a  sad  and  shocking  narrative.  Jamaica  had  long 
been  in  a  more  or  less  disturbed  condition  ;  at  least  it  had 
long  been  liable  to  periodical  fits  of  disturbance.  What 
we  may  call  the  planter  class  still  continued  to  look  on  the 
negroes  as  an  inferior  race  hardly  entitled  to  any  legal 
rights.  The  negroes  were  naturally  only  too  ready  to 
listen  to  any  denunciations  of  the  planter  class,  and  to  put 
faith  in  any  agitation  which  promised  to  secure  them  some 
property  in  the  land.  The  negroes  had  undoubtedly  some 
serious  grievances.  They  constantly  complained  that  they 
could  not  get  justice  administered  to  them  when  any  dispute 
arose  between  white  and  black.  The  Government  had  found 
that  there  was  some  ground  for  complaints  of  this  kind  at  the 
time  when  it  was  proposed  by  the  Jamaica  Bill  to  suspend  the 
constitution  of  the  island.  In  1865,  however,  the  common 
causes  of  dissatisfaction  were  freshly  and  further  complicated 
by  a  dispute  about  what  were  called  the  '  back  lands.'  Lands 
belonging  to  some  of  the  great  estates  in  Jamaica  had  been 
allowed  to  run  out  of  cultivation.  They  were  so  neglected  by 
their  owners  that  they  were  turning  into  mere  bush.  The 
quit-rents  due  on  them  to  the  Crown  had  not  been  paid  for 
seven  years.  The  negroes  were  told  that  if  they  paid  the 
arrears  of  quit-rent  they  might  cultivate  these  lands  and  enjoy 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT,  283 

them  free  of  rent.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  tendency  in 
Jamaica  had  almost  always  hitherto  been  for  the  Crown 
officials  to  take  the  part  of  the  negroes,  and  for  the  Jamaica 
authorities  to  side  with  the  local  magnates.  Trusting  to  the 
assurance  given,  some  of  the  negroes  paid  the  arrears  of  quit- 
rent,  and  brought  the  land  into  cultivation.  The  agent  of  one 
of  the  estates,  however,  reasserted  the  right  of  his  principal, 
who  had  not  been  a  consenting  party  to  the  arrangement,  and 
he  endeavoured  to  evict  the  negro  occupiers  of  the  land.  The 
negroes  resisted,  and  legal  proceedings  were  instituted  to  turn 
them  out.  The  legal  proceedings  were  still  pending  when  the 
events  took  place  which  gave  occasion  to  so  much  controversy. 
On  October  7,  18G5,  some  disturbances  took  place  on 
the  occasion  of  a  magisterial  meeting  at  Morant  Bay,  a 
small  town  on  the  south-east  corner  of  the  island.  The 
negroes  appeared  to  be  in  an  excited  state,  and  many  persons 
believed  that  an  outbreak  w^as  at  hand.  An  application 
w^as  made  to  the  Governor  for  military  assistance.  The 
Governor  of  Jamaica  was  Mr.  Edward  John  Eyre,  who  had 
been  a  successful  explorer  in  Central,  West,  and  Southern 
Australia,  had  acted  as  resident  magistrate  and  protector  of 
aborigines  in  the  region  of  the  Lower  Murray  in  Australia, 
and  had  afterwards  been  Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  Zealand, 
of  the  Leeward  Islands,  and  of  other  places.  All  Mr.  Eyre's 
dealings  with  native  races  up  to  this  time  would  seem  to 
have  earned  for  him  the  reputation  of  a  just  and  humane 
man.  The  Governor  despatched  a  small  military  force  by  sea 
to  the  scene  of  the  expected  disturbances.  Warrants  had  been 
issued  meanwhile  by  the  Custos  or  chief  magistrate  of  the 
parish  in  which  Morant  Bay  is  situated,  for  the  arrest  of  some 
of  the  persons  who  had  taken  part  in  the  previous  disturbances. 
When  the  warrants  were  about  to  be  put  into  execution, 
resistance  by  force  was  offered.  The  police  were  overpowered, 
and  some  were  beaten,  and  others  compelled  to  swear  that 
they  would  not  interfere  with  the  negroes.  On  the  11th  the 
negroes,  armed  with  sticks,  and  the  'cutlasses'  used  in  the 
work  of  the  sugar-cane  fields,  assembled  in  considerable 
numbers  in  the  square  of  the  Court  House  in  Morant  Bay. 
The  magistrates  were  holding  a  meeting  there.  The  mob 
made  for  the  Court  House  ;  the  local  volunteer  force  came  to 
the  help  of  the  magistrates.  The  Eiot  Act  was  being  read 
when  some  stones  were  thrown.  The  volunteers  fired,  and 
Bome  nesjroes  were  seen  to  fall.     Then  the  rioters  attacked  the 


284        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR    OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xx. 

Court  House.  The  volunteers  were  few  in  number,  and  were 
easily  overpowered ;  the  Court  House  was  set  on  fire  ;  eighteen 
persons,  the  Custos  among  them,  were  killed,  and  about  thirty 
were  wounded ;  and  a  sort  of  incoherent  insurrection  suddenly 
spread  itself  over  the  neighbourhood.  The  moment,  however, 
that  the  soldiers  sent  by  the  Governor,  at  first  only  one 
hundred  in  number,  arrived  upon  the  scene  of  disturbance, 
the  insurrection  collapsed  and  vanished.  There  never  was 
the  slightest  attempt  made  by  the  rioters  to  keep  the  field 
against  the  troops.  The  soldiers  had  not  in  a  single  instance 
to  do  any  fighting.  The  only  business  left  to  them  was  to 
hunt  out  supposed  rebels,  and  bring  them  before  military 
tribunals.  So  evanescent  was  the  whole  movement  that  it  is 
to  this  day  a  matter  of  dispute  whether  there  was  any  rebellion 
at  all,  properly  so  called ;  whether  there  was  any  organised 
attempt  at  insurrection  ;  or  whether  the  disturbances  were  not 
the  extemporaneous  work  of  a  discontented  and  turbulent 
mob,  whose  rush  to  rescue  some  of  their  friends  expanded 
suddenly  into  an  eftort  to  wreak  old  grievances  on  the  nearest 
representatives  of  authority. 

At  this  time  Jamaica  was  ruled  by  the  Governor  and 
Council,  and  the  House  of  Assembly.  Among  the  members  of 
the  Assembly  was  George  William  Gordon.  Gordon  was  a 
Baptist  by  religion,  and  had  in  him  a  good  deal  of  the  fanatical 
earnestness  of  the  field-preacher.  He  was  a  vehement  agitator 
and  a  devoted  advocate  of  what  he  considered  to  be  the  rights 
of  the  negroes.  He  appears  to  have  had  a  certain  amount  of 
eloquence.  He  was  just  the  sort  of  man  to  make  himsell  a 
nuisance  to  white  colonists  and  officials  who  wanted  to  have 
everything  their  own  way.  Gordon  was  in  constant  disputes 
with  the  authorities,  and  with  Governor  Eyre  himself.  He 
had  been  a  magistrate,  but  was  dismissed  from  the  magistracy 
in  consequence  of  the  alleged  violence  of  his  language  in 
making  accusations  against  another  justice.  He  had  taken 
some  part  in  getting  up  meetings  of  the  coloured  population ; 
he  had  made  many  appeals  to  th.e  Colonial  Office  in  London 
against  this  or  that  act  on  the  part  of  the  Governor  or  the 
Council,  or  both.  He  had  been  appointed  churchwarden,  but 
was  declared  disqualified  for  the  office  in  consequence  of  his 
having  become  a  '  Native  Baptist ; '  and  he  had  brought  an 
action  to  recover  what  he  held  to  be  his  rights.  He  had  come 
to  hold  the  position  of  champion  of  the  rights  and  claims  of 
the  black  man  against  the  white.     He  was  a  sort  of  constitu. 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT,  285 

tional  Opposition  in  himself.  The  Governor  seems  to  have  at 
once  adopted  the  conclusion  urged  on  him  by  others,  that 
Gordon  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  insurrectionary  movement. 

On  October  13,  the  Governor  proclaimed  the  whole  of  the 
county  of  Surrey,  with  the  exception  of  the  city  of  Kingston, 
under  martial  law.  Jamaica  is  divided  into  three  counties ; 
Surrey  covering  the  eastern  and  southern  portion,  including 
the  region  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  the  towns  of  Port  Antonio 
and  Morant  Bay,  and  the  considerable  city  of  Kingston,  with 
its  population  of  some  thirty  thousand.  Middlesex  comprehends 
the  central  part  of  the  island,  a'-id  contains  Spanish  Town,  then 
the  seat  of  Government.  The  western  part  of  the  island  is  the 
county  of  Cornwall.  Mr.  Gordon  lived  near  Kingston,  and  had 
a  place  of  business  in  the  city  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  been  there 
attending  to  his  business,  as  usual,  during  the  days  while  the 
disturbances  were  going  on.  The  Governor  ordered  a  warrant 
to  be  issued  for  Gordon's  arrest.  When  this  fact  became 
known  to  Gordon,  he  went  to  the  liouse  of  the  General  in 
command  of  the  forces  at  Kingston  and  gave  himself  up. 
The  Governor  had  him  iDut  at  once  on  board  a  war  steamer, 
and  conveyed  to  Morant  Bay.  Having  given  himself  up  in  a 
place  where  martial  law  did  not  exist,  where  the  ordmary 
courts  were  open,  and  where,  therefore,  he  would  have  been 
tried  with  all  the  forms  and  safeguards  of  the  civil  law,  he 
was  purposely  carried  away  to  a  place  which  had  been  put 
under  martial  law.  Here  an  extraordinary  sort  of  court- 
martial  was  sitting.  It  was  composed  of  two  young  navy 
lieutenants  and  an  ensign  in  one  of  hor  Majesty's  West  India 
regiments.  Gordon  was  hurried  before  this  grotesque  tribunal, 
charged  with  high  treason,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to 
death.  The  sentence  was  approved  by  the  officer  in  command 
01  the  troops  sent  to  Morant  Bay.  It  was  then  submitted  to 
the  Governor,  and  approved  by  him  also.  It  was  carried  into 
effect  without  much  delay.  The  day  following  Gordon's  con- 
viction was  Sunday,  and  it  was  not  tJiought  seemly  to  hang  a 
man  on  the  Sabbath.  He  was  allowed,  therefore,  to  live  over 
that  day.  On  the  morning  of  Monday,  October  23,  Gordon 
was  hanged.  He  bore  his  fate  with  great  heroism,  and  wrote 
just  before  his  death  a  letter  to  his  wife,  which  is  full  of 
pathos  in  its  simple  and  dignified  n>anliness.  He  died  pro- 
testing his  innocence  of  any  share  \ri  disloyal  conspiracy  or 
insurrectionary  purpose. 

The  whole  of  the  proceedings  connected  with  the  trial  of 


286        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OlViV  TIMES.      CH.  xx. 

Gordon  were  absolutely  illegal  from  first  to  last.  The  act 
wliicli  conveyed  Mr.  Gordon  from  the  protection  of  civil  law 
to  the  authority  of  a  drumhead  court-martial  was  grossly 
illegal.  The  tribunal  was  constituted  in  curious  defiance  of 
law  and  precedent.  It  is  contrary  to  all  authority  to  form  a 
court-martial  by  mixing  together  the  officers  of  the  two  differ- 
ent services.  It  was  an  unauthorised  tribunal,  however,  even 
if  considered  as  only  a  military  court-martial,  or  only  a  naval 
court-martial.  The  prisoner  thus  brought  by  unlawful  means 
before  an  illegal  tribunal  was  tried  upon  testimony  taken  in 
ludicrous  opposition  to  all  the  rules  of  evidence.  Such  as  the 
evidence  was,  however,  compounded  of  scraps  of  the  paltriest 
hearsay,  and  of  things  said  when  the  prisoner  was  not  present, 
it  testified  rather  to  the  innocence  than  to  the  guilt  of  the 
prisoner.  By  such  a  court,  on  such  evidence,  Gordon  was  put 
to  death. 

Meanwhile  the  carnival  of  repression  was  going  on.  For 
weeks  the  hangings,  the  Hoggings,  the  burnings  of  houses 
were  kept  up.  The  report  of  the  Eoyal  Commissioners 
stated  that  439  persons  were  put  to  death,  and  that  over 
six  hundred,  including  many  women,  were  flogged,  some 
mider  circumstances  of  revolting  cruelty.  When  the  story 
reached  England  in  clear  and  trustworthy  form,  an  associa- 
tion called  the  Jamaica  Committee  was  formed  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  seeing  that  justice  was  done.  It  comprised 
some  of  the  most  illustrious  Englishmen.  Men  became 
members  of  that  committee  who  had  never  taken  part 
in  public  agitation  of  any  kind  before.  Another  association 
was  founded,  on  the  opposite  side,  for  the  purpose  of  sustain- 
ing Governor  Eyre,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  it  too  had 
great  names.  Mr.  Mill  may  be  said  to  have  led  the  one  side, 
and  Mr.  Carlyle  the  other.  The  natural  bent  of  each  man  s 
genius  and  temper  turned  him  to  the  side  of  the  Jamaica 
negroes,  or  of  the  Jamaica  Governor.  Mr.  Tennyson,  Mr. 
Kingsley,  Mr.  Euskin,  followed  Mr.  Carlyle ;  we  know  now 
that  Mr.  Dickens  was  of  the  same  way  of  thinking.  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer,  Professor  Huxley,  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith, 
were  iu  agreement  with  Mr.  Mill.  The  case  on  either  side 
may  be  briefly  stated.  The  more  reasonable  of  those  who 
supported  Mr.  Eyre  contended  that  at  a  terrible  crisis  Mr. 
Eyre  was  confronted  with  the  fearful  possibility  of  a  negro 
insurrection,  and  that  he  did  the  best  he  could.  To  this 
the  opposite  party  answered  that   in  fact  the  insurrection, 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  287 

supposing  it  to  have  been  an  insurrection,  was  all  over 
before  the  floggmgs,  the  hangings,  and  the  burnings  set  in. 
Not  merely  were  the  troops  masters  of  the  field,  but  there 
was  no  armed  enemy  anywhere  to  be  seen  in  the  field  or  out 
of  it.  They  contended  that  men  are  not  warranted  in  inflict- 
ing wholesale  and  hideous  punishments  merely  in  order  to 
strike  such  terror  as  may  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  future 
disturbance. 

The  Eeport  of  the  Commissioners  was  made  in  April 
1866.  It  declared  in  substance  that  the  disturbances  had 
their  immediate  origin  in  a  planned  resistance  to  authority, 
arismg  partly  out  of  a  desire  to  obtain  the  land  free  of  rent, 
and  partly  out  of  the  want  of  confidence  felt  by  the  labouring 
class  in  the  tribunals  by  which  most  of  the  disputes  affecting 
their  interests  were  decided ;  that  the  disturbance  spread 
rapidly,  and  that  Mr.  Eyre  deserved  praise  for  the  skill  and* 
vigour  with  which  he  had  stopped  it  in  the  beginning ;  but 
that  martial  law  was  kept  in  force  too  long ;  that  the  punish- 
ments inflicted  were  excessive  ;  that  the  punishment  of  death 
was  unnecessarily  frequent ;  that  the  floggings  were  barbarous, 
and  the  burnings  wanton  and  cruel ;  that  although  it  was 
probable  that  Gordon,  by  his  writings  and  speeches,  had  done 
much  to  bring  about  excitement  and  discontent,  and  thus 
rendered  insurrection  possible,  yet  there  was  no  sufficient 
proof  of  his  complicity  m  the  outbreak,  or  in  any  organised 
conspiracy  against  the  Government ;  and,  indeed,  that  there 
was  no  wide-spread  conspiracy  of  any  kind.  Of  course  this 
finished  Mr.  Eyre's  career  as  a  Colonial  Governor.  A  new 
Governor,  Sir  J.  P.  Grant,  was  sent  out  to  Jamaica,  and  anew 
Constitution  was  given  to  the  island.  The  Jamaica  Committee 
prosecuted  Mr.  Eyre  and  some  of  his  subordinates,  but  the 
bills  of  indictment  were  always  thrown  out  by  the  grand  jury. 
After  many  discussions  m  Parliament,  the  Government  in 
1872 — once  again  a  Liberal  Government — decided  on  paying 
Mr.  Eyre  the  expenses  to  which  he  had  been  put  in  defending 
himself  agamst  the  various  prosecutions ;  and  the  House  of 
Commons,  after  a  long  debate,  agreed  to  the  vote  by  a  large 
majority.  On  the  whole  there  was  not  any  failure  of  justice. 
A  career  full  of  bright  promise  was  cut  short  for  Mr.  Eyre, 
and  for  some  of  his  subordinates  as  well ;  and  no  one  accused 
Mr.  Eyre  personally  of  anything  worse  than  a  fury  of  mis- 
taken zeal.  The  deeds  which  were  done  by  his  authority,  or 
to  which,  when  they  were  done,  he  gave  his  authority's  sane- 


288        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XX. 

tion,  were  branded  with  such  infamy  that  it  is  ahnost  impossible 
such  things  could  ever  be  done  again  in  England's  name. 
Even  those  who  excused  under  the  circumstances  the  men  by 
whom  the  deeds  were  done,  had  seldom  a  word  to  say  in  defence 
of  the  acts  themselves. 

The  Queen  opened  the  new  Parliament  in  person.  She 
then  performed  the  ceremony  for  the  first  time  since  the 
death  of  the  Prince  Consort.  The  speech  from  the  throne 
contained  a  paragraph  which  announced  that  her  Majesty 
had  directed  that  information  should  be  procured  in  refer- 
ence to  the  right  of  voting  in  the  election  of  members  of 
Parliament,  and  that  when  the  information  was  complete, 
*  the  attention  of  Parliament  will  be  called  to  the  result  thug 
obtained  with  a  view  to  such  improvements  in  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  right  of  voting  in  the  election  of  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  as  may  tend  to  strengthen  our  free 
institutions,  and  conduce  to  the  public  welfare.'  Some  an- 
nouncement on  the  subject  of  Eeform  was  expected  by  every- 
one. The  only  surprise  felt  was  perhaps  at  the  cautious  and 
limited  way  in  which  the  proposed  measure  was  indicated  in  the 
royal  speech.  While  Eadicals  generally  insisted  that  the 
strength  of  the  old  Whig  ]3arty  had  been  successfully  exerted  to 
compel  a  compromise  and  keep  Mr.  Gladstone  down,  most  of  the 
Tories  would  have  it  that  Mr.  G  ladstone  now  had  got  it  all  his 
own  way,  and  that  the  cautious  vagueness  of  the  Queen's  Speech 
would  only  prove  to  be  the  prelude  to  very  decisive  and  alarm- 
ing changes  in  the  Constitution.  Not  since  the  introduction 
by  Lord  John  Eussell  of  the  measure  which  became  law  in 
1832,  had  a  Eeform  Bill  been  expected  in  England  with  so 
much  curiosity,  with  so  much  alarm,  and  with  so  much  dis- 
position to  a  foregone  conclusion  of  disappointment.  On 
March  12  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  the  bill.  His  speech  was 
eloquent ;  but  the  House  of  Commons  was  not  stirred.  It 
was  evident  at  once  that  the  proposed  measure  was  only  a 
compromise  of  the  most  unattractive  kind.  The  bill  proposed 
to  reduce  the  county  franchise  from  fifty  pounds  to  fourteen 
pounds,  and  the  borough  franchise  from  ten  to  seven  pounds. 
The  borough  franchise  of  course  was  still  the  central  question 
in  any  reform  measure ;  and  this  was  to  be  reduced  by  three 
pounds. 

The  man  who  could  be  enthusiastic  over  such  a  reform 
must  have  been  a  person  whose  enthusiasm  was  scarcely 
worth   arousing.     The    peculiarity    of    the    situation    was. 


cii.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  289 

that  without  a  genuine  popular  enthusiasm  nothing  could 
be  done.  The  House  of  Commons  as  a  whole  did  not 
want  reform.  All  the  Conservatives  were  of  course  openly 
and  consistently  opposed  to  reform;  not  a  few  of  the  pro- 
fessing Liberals  secretly  detested  it.  Only  a  small  number  of 
men  in  the  House  were  genuine  in  their  anxiety  for  immediate 
change ;  and  of  these  the  majority  were  too  earnest  and 
extreme  to  care  for  a  reform  which  only  meant  a  reduction  of 
the  borough  franchise  from  ten  pounds  to  seven  pounds.  It 
seemed  a  ridiculous  anti-climax,  after  all  the  incUgnant  elo- 
quence about  *  unenfranchised  millions,'  to  come  down  to  a 
scheme  for  enfranchising  a  few  hundreds  here  and  there. 
Those  who  believed  in  the  sincerity  and  high  purpose  of 
Lord  Eussell  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  who  therefore  assumed 
that  if  they  said  this  was  all  they  could  do  there  was  nothing 
else  to  be  done — these  supported  the  bill.  Mr.  Bright  sup- 
ported it ;  somewhat  coldly  at  first,  but  afterwards,  when 
warmed  by  the  glow  of  debate  and  of  opposition,  with  all  his 
wonted  power.  It  was  evident,  however,  that  he  was  support- 
ing Lord  Eussell  and  Mr.  Gladstone  rather  than  their  Eeform 
Bill.  Mr.  Mill  supported  the  bill,  partly  no  doubt  for  the 
same  reason,  and  partly  because  it  had  the  support  of  Mr. 
Bright.  But  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find  anyone  who 
said  that  he  really  cared  much  about  the  measure  itself,  or  that 
it  was  the  sort  of  thing  he  would  have  proposed  if  he  had  his 
way.  The  Conservatives  as  a  man  opposed  the  measure  ;  and 
they  had  allies.  Day  after  day  saw  new  secessions  of  em- 
boldened Whigs  and  half-hearted  Liberals.  The  Ministerial 
side  of  the  House  was  fast  becoming  demoralised.  The  Liberal 
party  was  breaking  up  into  mutinous  camps  and  unmanageable 
coteries. 

Mr.  Eobert  Lowe  was  the  hero  of  the  Opposition  that 
fought  against  the  bill.  His  attacks  on  the  Government  had, 
of  course,  all  the  more  piquancy  that  they  came  from  a  Liberal, 
and  one  who  had  held  office  in  two  Liberal  administrations. 
The  Tory  benches  shouted  and  screamed  with  delight,  as  in 
speech  after  speech  of  admirable  freshness  and  vigour  Mr. 
Lowe  poured  his  scathing  sarcasms  in  upon  the  bill  and  its 
authors.*  Even  their  own  leader  and  champion,  Mr.  Disraeli, 
became  of  comparatively  small  account  with  the  Tories  when 
they  heard  Mr.  Lowe's  invectives  against  their  enemies. 
Much  of  Mr.  Lowe's  success  was  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
manner  in  which  he  hit  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  Conser- 

13 


290        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xx. 

vatives  and  of  the  disaffected  Whigs.  Applause  and  admira- 
tion are  contagious  in  the  House  of  Commons.  When  a  great 
number  of  voices  join  in  cheers  and  in  praise,  other  voices  are 
caught  by  the  attraction,  and  cheer  and  praise  out  of  the  sheer 
infection  of  sympathy.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  applause 
reacts  upon  the  orator.  The  more  he  feels  that  the  House 
admires  him,  the  more  likely  he  is  to  make  himself  worthy 
of  the  admiration.  The  occasion  told  on  Mr.  Lowe.  His 
form  seemed,  metaphorically  at  least,  to  grow  greater  and 
grander  on  that  scene,  as  the  enthusiasm  of  his  admirers 
waxed  and  heated.  Certainly  he  never  after  that  time  made 
any  great  mark  by  his  speeches,  or  won  back  any  of  the  fame 
as  an  orator  which  was  his  during  that  short  and  to  him 
splendid  period.  But  the  speeches  themselves  were  masterly 
as  mere  literary  productions.  Not  many  men  could  have 
fewer  physical  qualifications  for  success  in  oratory  than  Mr. 
Lowe.  He  had  an  awkward  and  ungainly  presence ;  his 
gestures  were  angular  and  ungraceful ;  his  voice  was  harsh 
and  rasping ;  his  articulation  was  so  imperfect  that  he  became 
now  and  then  almost  unintelligible ;  his  sight  was  so  short 
that  when  he  had  to  read  a  passage  or  extract  of  any  kind, 
he  could  only  puzzle  over  its  contents  in  a  painful  and  blunder- 
ing way,  even  with  the  paper  held  up  close  to  his  eyes ;  and 
his  memory  was  not  good  enough  to  allow  him  to  quote  any- 
thing without  the  help  of  documents.  How,  it  may  be  asked 
in  wonder,  was  such  a  speaker  as  this  to  contend  in  eloquence 
with  the  torrent-like  fluency,  the  splendid  diction,  the  silver- 
trumpet  voice  of  Gladstone  ;  or  with  the  thrilling  vibrations 
of  Bright's  noble  eloquence,  now  penetrating  in  its  pathos, 
and  now  irresistible  in  its  humour  ?  Even  those  who  well 
remember  these  great  debates  may  ask  themselves  in  un- 
satisfied wonder  the  same  question  now.  It  is  certain  that 
Mr.  Lowe  has  not  the  most  distant  claim  to  be  ranked  as  an 
orator  with  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Mr.  Bright.  Yet  it  is  equally 
certain  that  he  did  for  that  season  stand  up  against  each  of 
them,  against  them  both ;  against  them  both  at  their  very 
best ;  and  that  he  held  his  own. 

Mr.  Disraeli  was  thrown  completely  into  the  shade.  Mr. 
Disraeli  was  not,  it  is  said,  much  put  out  by  this.  H%  listened 
quietly,  perhaps  even  contemptuously,  looking  upon  the  whole 
episode  as  one  destined  to  pass  quickly  away.  He  did  not 
believe  that  Mr.  Lowe  was  likely  to  be  a  peer  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
or  Mr.  Bright — or  ot  himself — in  debate.     But  for  the  timo 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT,  291 

Mr.  Lowe  was  the  master-spirit  of  the  Opposition  to  the 
Eeform  Bilh  In  sparkhng  sentences,  full  of  classical  allusion 
and  of  illustrations  drawn  from  all  manner  of  literatures,  he 
denoimced  and  satirised  demagogues,  democratic  governments, 
and  every  influence  that  tended  to  bring  about  any  political 
condition  which  allowed  of  an  ominous  comparison  with 
something  in  Athenian  history.  The  Conservatives  made  a 
hero,  and  even  an  idol,  of  him.  Shrewd  old  members  oi  the 
party,  who  ought  to  have  known  better,  were  heard  to  declare 
that  he  was  not  only  the  greatest  orator,  but  even  the  greatest 
statesman,  of  the  day.  In  truth,  Mr.  Lowe  was  neither  orator 
nor  statesman.  He  had  some  of  the  gifts  which  are  needed 
to  make  a  man  an  orator,  but  hardly  any  of  those  which  con- 
stitute a  statesman.  He  was  a  literary  man  and  a  scholar, 
who  had  a  happy  knack  of  saying  bitter  things  in  an  epigram- 
matic way ;  he  really  hated  the  Reform  Bill,  towards  which 
Mr.  Disraeli  probably  felt  no  emotion  whatever,  and  he  started 
into  prominence  as  an  anti-reformer  just  at  the  right  moment 
to  suit  the  Conservatives  and  embarrass  and  dismay  the 
Liberal  party.  He  was  greatly  detested  for  a  time  amongst 
the  working  classes,  for  whose  benefit  the  measure  was  chiefly 
introduced.  He  not  only  spoke  out  with  cynical  frankness 
his  own  opinion  of  the  merits  and  morals  of  the  people  '  who 
live  in  these  small  houses,'  but  he  implied  that  all  the  other 
members  of  the  House  held  the  same  opinion,  if  they  would 
only  venture  to  give  it  a  tongue.  He  was  once  or  twice 
mobbed  in  the  streets  ;  he  was  strongly  disliked  and  dreaded 
for  the  hour  by  the  Liberals ;  he  was  the  most  prominent 
figure  on  the  stage  during  these  weeks  of  excitement ;  and  no 
doubt  he  was  perfectly  happy. 

The  debates  on  the  bill  brought  out  some  speeches  which 
have  not  been  surpassed  in  the  Parliamentary  history  of  our 
time.  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Gladstone  were  at  their  very  best. 
Mr.  Bright  likened  the  formation  of  the  little  band  of  mal- 
contents to  the  doings  of  David  in  the  cave  of  Adullam  when  he 
called  about  him  *  every  one  that  was  in  distress  and  every  one 
that  was  discontented,'  and  became  a  captain  over  them.  The 
allusion  told  upon  the  House  with  instant  effect,  for  many  had 
suspected  and  some  had  said  that  if  Mr.  Lowe  had  been  more 
carefully  conciliated  by  the  Prime  Minister  at  the  time  of 
his  Government's  formation,  there  might  have  been  no  such 
acrimonious  opposition  to  the  bill.  The  little  third  party 
were  at  once  christened  the  Adullamites,  and  the  name  still 


sg2        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xx. 

survives,  and  is  likely  long  to  survive  its  old  political  history. 
Mr.  Gladstone's  speech,  with  which  the  great  debate  on  the 
second  reading  concluded,  was  aflame  with  impassioned  elo- 
quence. This  speech  was  concluded  on  the  morning  of  April  28. 
The  debate  which  it  brought  to  a  close  had  been  carried 
on  for  eight  nights.  The  House  of  Commons  was  wrought  up 
to  a  pitch  of  the  most  intense  excitement  when  the  division 
came  to  be  taken.  The  closing  passages  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
speech  had  shown  clearly  enough  that  he  did  not  expect  much 
of  a  triumph  for  the  Government.  The  House  was  crowded 
to  excess.  The  numbers  voting  were  large  beyond  almost  any 
other  previous  instance.  There  were  for  the  second  reading 
of  the  bill  318  :  there  were  against  it  313.  The  second  read- 
ing was  carried  by  a  majority  of  only  five.  The  wild  cheers 
of  the  Conservatives  and  the  Adullamites  showed  that  the  bill 
was  doomed.  The  question  now  was  not  whether  the  measure 
would  be  a  failure,  but  only  when  the  failure  would  have  to 
be  confessed.  The  time  for  the  confession  soon  came.  The 
opponents  of  the  reform  scheme  kept  pouring  in  amendments. 
These  came  chiefly  from  the  Ministerial  side  of  the  House. 
Lord  Dunkellin,  usually  a  supporter  of  the  Government, 
moved  an  amendment  the  effect  of  which  would  be  to  make 
the  franchise  a  little  higher  than  the  Government  proposed  to 
fix  it.  Lord  Dunkellin  carried  his  amendment.  Lord  Eussell 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  accepted  the  situation,  and  resigned  office. 
The  defeat  of  the  bill  and  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry 
brought  the  political  career  of  Lord  Eussell  to  a  close.  He 
took  advantage  of  the  occasion  soon  after  to  make  a  formal 
announcement  that  he  handed  over  the  task  of  leading  the 
Liberal  party  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  He  appeared  indeed  in 
public  life  on  several  occasions  after  his  resignation  of  office. 
He  took  part  sometimes  in  the  debates  of  the  House  of  Lords ; 
he  even  once  or  twice  introduced  measures  there,  and  en- 
deavoured to  get  them  passed.  Lord  Russell's  career,  how- 
ever, was  practically  at  an  end.  It  had  been  a  long  and  an 
interesting  career.  It  was  begun  amid  splendid  chances. 
Lord  John  Russell  was  born  in  the  very  purple  of  politics  ;  he 
was  cradled  and  nursed  among  statesmen  and  orators ;  the 
fervid  breath  of  young  liberty  fanned  his  boyhood  ;  his  tutors, 
friends,  companions,  were  the  master-spirits  who  rule  the 
fortunes  of  nations ;  he  had  the  ministerial  benches  for  a 
training  growid,  and  had  a  seat  in  the  Administration  at  his 
disposal  w}ien  another  young  man  might  have  been  glad  of  a 


CH.  XX.  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT,  293 

seat  in  an  opera  box.  He  must  have  been  brought  into  more 
or  less  intimate  association  with  all  the  men  and  women  worth 
knowing  in  Europe  since  the  early  part  of  the  century.  Lord 
John  Eussell  had  tastes  for  literature,  for  art,  for  philosophy, 
for  history,  for  politics,  and  his  asstheticism  had  the  advantage 
that  it  made  him  seek  the  society  and  appreciate  the  worth  of 
men  of  genius  and  letters.  Thus  he  never  remained  a  mere 
politician  like  Palmerston.  His  public  career  suggests  a 
strange  series  of  contradictions,  or  paradoxes.  In  Ireland  he 
was  long  known  rather  as  the  author  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill  than  as  the  early  friend  of  Catholic  Emancipation ; 
in  England  as  the  parent  of  petty  and  abortive  Eeform  Bills, 
rather  than  as  the  promoter  of  one  great  Eeform  Bill.  Abroad 
and  at  home  he  came  to  be  thought  of  as  the  Minister  who 
disappointed  Denmark  and  abandoned  Poland,  rather  than 
as  the  earnest  friend  and  faithful  champion  of  oppressed 
nationalities.  No  statesman  could  be  a  more  sincere  and 
thorough  opponent  of  slavery  in  all  its  forms  and  works  ;  and 
yet  in  the  mind  of  the  American  people.  Lord  Eussell's  name 
was  for  a  long  time  associated  with  the  idea  of  a  scarcely- 
concealed  support  of  the  slaveholders'  rebellion.  Much  of 
this  curious  contrast,  this  seeming  inconsistency,  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  for  the  greater  part  of  his  public  life  Lord  Eussell's 
career  was  a  mere  course  of  see-saw  between  office  and  oppo- 
sition. The  sort  of  superstition  that  long  prevailed  in  our 
political  affairs  limited  the  higher  offices  of  statesmanship  to 
two  or  three  conventionally  acceptable  men  on  either  side.  If 
not  Sir  Eobert  Peel  then  it  must  be  Lord  John  Eussell ;  if  it 
was  not  Lord  Derby  it  must  be  Lord  Palmerston.  Therefore 
if  the  business  of  government  was  to  go  on  at  all,  a  statesman 
must  take  office  now  and  then  with  men  whom  he  could  not 
mould  wholly  to  his  purpose,  and  must  act  in  seeming  sym- 
pathy with  principles  and  measures  which  he  would  himself 
have  little  cared  to  originate.  The  personal  life  of  Lord 
Eussell  was  consistent  all  through.  He  began  .as  a  Eeformer; 
Le  ended  as  a  Eeformer. 


294        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxi. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

KEFOEM. 

The  Queen,  of  course,  sent  for  Lord  Derby.  He  had  no 
personal  desire  to  enter  office  once  again  ;  he  had  no  incHna- 
tion  for  official  responsibilities.  He  was  not  very  fond  of 
work,  even  when  younger  and  stronger,  and  the  habitual 
indolence  of  his  character  had  naturally  grown  with  years, 
and  just  now  with  infirmities.  It  was  generally  understood 
that  he  would  only  consent  to  be  the  Prime  Minister  of  an 
interval,  and  that  whenever,  with  convenience  to  the  interests 
of  the  State,  some  other  hand  could  be  entrusted  with  power, 
be  would  expect  to  be  released  from  the  trouble  of  official  life. 
The  prospect  for  a  Conservative  Ministry  was  not  inviting. 
Lord  Derby  had  hoped  to  be  able  to  weld  together  a  sort  of 
coalition  Ministry,  which  should  to  a  certain  extent  represent 
both  sides  of  the  House.  Accordingly,  he  at  once  invited  the 
leading  members  of  the  Adullamite  party  to  accept  places  in 
his  Administration.  He  was  met  by  disappointment.  The 
Adullamite  chiefs  agreed  to  decline  all  such  co-operation. 
When  it  w^as  known  t]^.at  Mr.  Lowe  would  not  take  office  under 
Lord  Derby,  nobody  cared  what  became  of  the  other  denizens 
of  the  Cave.  Some  of  them  were  men  of  great  territorial 
influence ;  some  were  men  of  long  standing  in  Parliament. 
But  they  were  absolutely  unnoticed  now  that  the  crisis  was 
over.  They  might  take  office  or  let  it  alone ;  the  public  at 
large  were  absolutely  indifferent  on  the  subject. 

The  session  had  advanced  far  towards  its  usual  time  of 
closing,  when  Lord  Derby  completed  the  arrangements  for 
his  Administration.  Mr.  Disraeli,  of  course,  became  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
Lord  Stanley  was  Foreign  Secretary.  Lord  Cranborne,  for- 
merly Lord  Robert  Cecil,  was  entrusted  with  the  care  of 
India  ;  Lord  Carnarvon  undertook  the  Colonies  ;  General  Peel 
became  War  Minister  ;  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  was  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  ;  and  Mr.  Walpole  took  on  himself  the 
management  of  the  Home  Office,  little  knowing  what  a 
troublous  business  he  had  brought  upon  his  shoulders.  Sir 
John  Pakington  boldly  assumed  the  control  of  the  Admiralty. 
On  July  9  Lord  Derby  was  able  to  announce  to  the  Peers  that 
be  had  put  together  his  house  of  cards. 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM.  295 

The  new  Ministry  had  hardly  taken  their  places  when 
a  perfect  storm  of  agitation  broke  out  all  over  the  country. 
The  Conservatives  and  the  Adullamites  had  both  asserted 
that  the  working  people  in  general  were  indifferent  about  the 
franchise ;  and  a  number  of  organisations  now  sprang  into 
existence,  having  for  their  object  to  prove  to  the  world  that 
no  such  apathy  prevailed.  Reform  Leagues  and  Eeform 
Unions  started  up  as  if  out  of  the  ground.  Public  meetings 
of  vast  dimensions  began  to  be  held  day  after  day  for  the 
purpose  of  testifying  to  the  strength  of  the  desire  for  Reform. 
The  most  noteworthy  of  these  was  the  famous  Hyde  Park 
meeting.  The  Reformers  of  the  metropolis  determined  to 
hold  a  monster  meeting  in  the  Park.  The  authorities  took 
the  very  unwise  course  of  determining  to  prohibit  it,  and  a 
proclamation  or  official  notice  was  issued  to  that  effect.  The 
Reformers  were  acting  under  the  advice  of  Mr.  Edmond 
Beales,  president  of  the  Reform  League,  a  barrister  of  some 
standing,  and  a  man  of  character  and  considerable  ability. 
Mr.  Beales  was  of  opinion  that  the  authorities  had  no  legal 
power  to  prevent  the  meeting ;  and  of  course  it  need  hardly 
be  said  that  a  Commissioner  of  Police,  or  even  a  Home  Secre- 
tary, is  not  qualified  to  make  anything  legal  or  illegal  by 
simply  proclaiming  it  so.  The  London  Reformers,  therefore, 
determined  to  try  their  right  with  the  authorities.  On  July 
23,  a  number  of  processions,  marching  with  bands  and  banners, 
set  out  from  different  parts  of  London  and  made  for  Hyde 
Park.  The  authorities  had  posted  notices  announcing  that 
the  gates  of  the  Park  would  be  closed  at  five  o'clock  that  even- 
ing. When  the  first  of  the  processions  arrived  at  the  Park 
the  gates  were  closed,  and  a  line  of  policemen  was  drawn 
outside.  The  president  of  the  Reform  League,  Mr.  Beales, 
and  some  other  prominent  Reformers,  came  up  in  a  carriage, 
alighted,  and  endeavoured  to  enter  the  Park.  They  were 
refused  admittance.  They  asked  for  the  authority  by  which 
they  were  refused  ;  and  they  were  told  it  was  the  authority  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Police.  They  then  quietly  re-entered 
the  carriage.  It  was  their  intention  first  to  assert  their  right, 
and  then,  being  refused,  to  try  it  in  the  regular  and  legal 
way.  They  went  to  Trafalgar  Square,  followed  by  a  large 
crowd,  and  there  a  meeting  was  extemporised,  at  which 
resolutions  were  passed  demanding  the  extension  of  the  suf- 
frage, and  thanking  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Bright,  and  other 
men  who  had  striven  to  obtain  it.     The  speaking  was  short ; 


290        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxi. 

it  was  not  jpliysically  possible  to  speak  with  any  effect  to  so 
large  an  assemblage.  Then  that  part  of  the  demonstration 
came  quietly  to  an  end. 

Meanwhile,  however,  a  different  scene  had  been  going  on 
at  Hyde  Park.     A  large  and  motley  crowd  had  hung  about 
the  gates  and  railings.     The  crowd  was  composed  partly  of 
genuine  Keformers,  partly  of  mere  sight -seers  and  curiosity- 
mongers,  partly  of  mischievous  boys,  and  to  no  inconsiderable 
extent  of  ordinary  London  roughs.     Not  a  few  of  all  sections, 
perhaps,  were  a  little  disappointed  that  things  had  gone_  so 
quietly  off.     The  mere  mass  of  people  pressed  and  pressing 
round  the  railings  would  almost  in  any  case  have  somewhat 
seriously  threatened  their  security  and  tried  their  strength. 
The  rails  began  to  give  way.     There  was  a  simultaneous  im- 
pulsive rush,  and  some  yards  of  railing  were  down,  and  men 
in  scores  were  tumbling,  and  floundering,  and  rushing  over 
them.     The  example  was  followed  along  Park  Lane,  and  in  a 
moment  half  a  mile  of  iron  railing  was  lying  on  the  grass, 
and  a  tumultuous  and  delighted  mob  were  swarming  over  the 
Park.     The  news  ran  wildly  through  the  town.     Some  thought 
it  a  revolt ;  others  were  of  opinion  that  it  was  a  revolution. 
The  first  day  of  liberty  was  proclaimed  here — the  breaking 
loose  of  anarchy  was  shrieked  at  there.     The  mob  capered 
and  jumped  over  the   sward  for  half  the  night  through. 
Flower-beds  and  shrubs  suffered  a  good  deal,  not  so  much 
from   wanton   destruction   as  from  the  pure   boisterousness 
which   came   of  an  unexpected  opportunity  for  horse-play. 
There  were  a  good  many  little  encounters  with  the  police ; 
stones  were  thrown  on  the  one  side  and  truncheons  used  on 
the  other  pretty  freely  ;  a  detachment  of  foot  guards  was  kept 
near  the  spot  in  readiness,  but  their  services  were  not  required. 
Lideed,  the  mob  good-humouredly  cheered  the  soldiers  when- 
ever they  caught  sight  of  them.     A  few  heads  were  broken 
on  both  sides,  and  a  few  prisoners  were  made  by  the  police  ; 
but  there  was  no  revolution,  no  revolt,  no  serious  riot  even, 
and  no  intention  in  the  mind  of  any  responsible  person  that 
there  should  be  a  riot.     Mr.  Disraeli  that  night  declared  ni 
the  House  of  Commons — half  probably  in  jest,  half  certainly 
in  earnest — that  he  was  not  quite  sure  whether  he  had  still  a 
house  to  go  to.     He  found  his  house  yet  standing,  and  firmly 
roofed,  when  he  returned  home  that  night.     London  slept 
feverishly,  and  awoke  next  day  to  find  things  going  on  very 
much  as  before.     Crowds  hastened,  half  in  amusement,  half 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM,  297 

in  fear,  to  look  upon  the  scene  of  the  previous  evening's  tur- 
moil. There  were  the  raiUngs  down  sure  enough  ;  and  hi  the 
Park  was  still  a  large  idle  crowd,  partly  of  harmless  sight- 
seers, partly  of  roughs,  with  a  considerable  body  of  police 
keeping  order.  But  there  was  no  popular  rising ;  and  London 
began  once  more  to  eat  its  meals  in  peace. 

Nothing  can  well  be  more  certain  than  the  fact  that  the 
Hyde  Park  riot,  as  it  was  called,  convinced  her  Majesty's 
Ministers  of  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  adoption  of  the 
reform  principle.  The  Government  took  tho  Hyde  Park  riot 
with  portentous  gravity.  Mr.  Beales  and  some  of  his  colleagues 
waited  upon  the  Home  Secretary  next  c  ay,  for  the  purpose  of 
advising  him  to  withdraw  the  military  and  police  from  the 
Park,  and  leave  it  in  the  custody  oi  the  Pieformers.  Mr. 
Beales  gravely  lectured  the  Government  for  what  they  had 
done,  and  declared,  as  was  undoubtedly  the  fact,  that  the 
foolish  conduct  of  the  Administration  had  been  the  original 
cause  of  all  the  disturbance.  The  Home  Secretary,  Mr. 
Walpole,  a  gentle  and  kindly  man,  had  lost  his  head  in  the 
excitement  of  the  hour.  He  mentally  saw  himself  charged 
with  the  responsibility  of  civil  strife  and  bloodshed.  He  was 
melted  out  of  all  self-command  by  the  kindly  bearing  of  Mr. 
Beales  and  the  Eeformers,  and  when  they  assured  him  that 
they  were  only  anxious  to  help  him  to  keep  order,  he  fairly 
broke  down  and  wept.  He  expressed  himself  with  meek 
gratitude  for  their  promised  co-operation,  and  agreed  to  almost 
anything  they  could  suggest.  It  was  understood  that  the  right 
of  meeting  in  Hyde  Park  Avas  left  to  be  tested  in  some  more 
satisfactory  way  at  a  future  day,  and  the  leaders  of  the  Keform 
League  took  their  departure  undoubted  masters  of  the  situa- 
tion. 

All  through  the  autumn  and  winter  great  meetings  were 
held  in  the  great  towns  and  cities  to  promote  the  cause  of 
reform.  A  most  significant  feature  of  these  demonstrations 
was  the  part  taken  by  the  organised  trades  associations  of 
working  men.  They  were  great  in  numbers,  and  most  im- 
posing in  their  silent  united  strength.  They  had  grown  into 
all  that  discipline  and  that  power  unpatronised  by  any  manner 
of  authority ;  unrecognised  by  the  law,  unless  indeed  where 
the  law  occasionally  went  out  of  its  way  to  try  to  prevent  or 
thwart  the  aims  of  their  organisation.  They  had  now  grown 
to  such  strength  that  law  and  authority  must  see  to  make 
terms  with  tliem.  The  capitalist  and  all  who  share  hia 
13^ 


298        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     OH.  xxi. 

immediate  interests  ;  the  employers,  the  rich  of  every  kind,  the 
aristocratic,  the  self-appointed  public  instructors,  had  all  been 
against  them ;  and  they  had  nevertheless  gone  deliberately 
and  stubbornly  their  own  way.  Sometimes  they,  or  the  cause 
they  represented,  had  prevailed ;  often  they  and  it  had  been 
defeated  ;  but  they  had  never  acknowledged  a  defeat  in  prin- 
ciple, and  they  had  kept  on  their  own  course  undismayed,  and, 
as  many  would  have  put  it,  unconvinced  and  unreconciled. 

While  England  was  thus  occupied,  stirring  events  were 
taking  place  elsewhere.  In  the  interval  between  the  resignation 
of  Lord  Eussell  and  the  completion  of  Lord  Derby's  minis- 
try, Austria  and  Prussia  had  gone  to  war,  and  the  leadership  of 
Germany  had  been  decisively  won  by  Prussia.  Venetia  had 
been  added  to  Italy,  Prussia's  ally  in  the  war,  and  Austria  had 
been  excluded  from  any  share  in  German  affairs.  English 
public  instructors  were  for  the  most  part  completely  agreed 
about  the  utter  incapacity  of  the  Prussians  for  the  business  of 
war,  and  the  complete  overthrow  of  Austria  came  with  the 
shock  of  a  bewildering  surprise  upon  the  great  mass  of  our 
people. 

Just  before  the  adjournment  of  Parliament  for  the  recess, 
a  great  work  of  peace  w^as  accomplished.  This  was  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Atlantic  cable.  On  the  evening  of  July  27, 1866, 
the  cable  was  laid  between  Europe  and  America.  Next  day 
Lord  Stanley,  as  Foreign  Minister,  was  informed  that  perfect 
communication  existed  between  England  and  the  United  States 
by  means  of  a  thread  of  wire  that  lay  beneath  the  Atlantic. 
Words  of  friendly  congratulation  and  greeting  were  inter- 
changed between  the  Queen  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  Ten  years  all  but  a  month  or  two  had  gone  by  since 
Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field,  the  American  promoter  of  the  Atlantic 
telegraph  project,  had  first  tried  to  inspire  cool  and  calculating 
men  in  London,  Liverpool,  and  Manchester  with  some  faith  in 
his  project.  It  was  not  he  who  first  thought  of  doing  the 
thing,  but  it  was  he  who  first  made  up  his  mind  that  it  could 
be  done  and  showed  the  world  how  to  do  it,  and  did  it  in  the 
end.  The  history  of  human  invention  has  not  a  more  inspiriting 
example  of  patience  living  down  discouragement,  and  persever- 
ance triumphing  over  defeat.  The  first  attempt  to  lay  the  cable 
w^as  made  in  1857  ;  but  the  vessels  engaged  in  the  expedition 
had  only  got  about  three  hundred  miles  from  the  west  coast 
of  Ireland  when  the  cable  broke,  and  the  effort  had  to  be  given 
up  for  that  year.     Next  year  the  enterprise  was  renewed  and 


cii.  XXI.  REFORM.  ■       299 

failed  ag  lin.  Another  effort,  however,  was  made  that  summer. 
The  cable  was  actually  laid.  It  did  for  a  few  days  unite  Europe 
and  America.  Messages  of  congratulation  passed  along  between 
the  Queen  and  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Suddenly, 
however,  the  signals  became  faint  ;  the  messages  grew  inar- 
ticulate, and  before  long  the  power  of  communication  ceased 
altogether.  The  cable  became  a  mere  cable  agam  ;  the  wire 
that  spoke  with  such  a  miraculous  eloquence  had  become  silent. 
The  construction  of  the  cable  had  proved  to  be  defective,  and 
a  new  principle  had  to  be  devised  by  science.  Yet  something 
definite  had  been  accomplished.  It  had  been  shown  that  a 
cable  could  be  stretched  and  maintained  under  the  ocean  more 
than  two  miles  deep  and  two  thousand  miles  across.  Another 
attempt  was  made  in  1865,  but  it  proved  again  a  failure,  and 
the  shivered  cable  had  to  be  left  for  the  time  in  the  bed  of  the 
Atlantic.  At  last,  in  1866,  the  feat  was  accomplished,  and 
the  Atlantic  telegraph  was  added  to  the  realities  of  life. 

The  autumn  and  winter  of  agitation  passed  away,  and  the 
time  was  at  hand  when  the  new  Ministry  must  meet  a  new 
session  of  Parliament.  The  country  looked  with  keen  interest, 
and  also  with  a  certain  amused  curiosity,  to  see  what  the 
Government  would  do  with  Reform  in  the  session  ol  1867. 
Parliament  opened  on  February  5.  The  Speech  from  the 
Throne  alluded,  as  everyone  had  expected  that  it  would,  to  the 
subject  of  Eeform.  'Your  attention,'  so  ran  the  words  of  the 
speech,  '  will  again  be  called  to  the  state  of  the  representation 
of  the  people  in  Parliament ;'  and  then  the  hope  was  expressed 
that  '  Your  deliberations,  conducted  in  a  spirit  of  moderation 
and  mutual  forbearance,  may  lead  to  the  adoption  of  measures 
which,  without  unduly  disturbing  the  balance  of  political  power, 
shall  freely  extend  the  elective  franchise.'  The  hand  of  Mr. 
Disraeli,  people  said,  was  to  be  seen  clearly  enough  in  these 
vague  and  ambiguous  phrases.  How,  it  was  asked,  can  the 
franchise  be  freely  extended,  in  the  Reformer's  sense,  without 
disturbing  the  balance  of  political  power  unduly,  in  Mr. 
Disraeli's  sense?  More  and  more  the  conviction  spread  that 
Mr.  Disraeli  would  only  try  to  palm  off  some  worthless  measure 
on  the  House  of  Commons,  and,  by  the  help  of  the  insincere 
Reformers  and  AduUamites,  endeavour  to  induce  the  m.ajority 
to  accept  it.  People  had  little  idea,  however,  of  the  flexibility 
the  Government  were  soon  to  display.  The  history  of  Parlia- 
ment in  our  modern  days,  or  indeed  in  any  days  that  we  know 
much  of,  has  nothing  like  the  proceedings  of  that  extraordinary 
session. 


300        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxi. 

On  February  11  Mr.  Disraeli  announced  that  the  Govern* 
ment  had  made  up  their  minds  to  proceed  '  by  way  of  resohi- 
tion.'  The  great  difficulty,  he  explained,  in  the  way  of  passing 
a  Eeform  Bill  was  that  the  two  great  political  parties  could  not 
be  got  to  agree  beforehand  on  any  principles  by  which  to  con- 
struct a  measure.  '  Let  us  then,  before  we  go  to  work  at  the 
construction  of  a  Eeform  Bill  this  time,  agree  among  our- 
selves as  to  what  sort  of  a  measure  we  want.  The  rest  will  be 
easy.'  He  therefore  announced  his  intention  to  put  into  the 
Parliamentary  cauldron  a  handful  of  resolutions,  out  of  which, 
when  they  had  been  allowed  to  simmer,  would  miraculously 
arise  the  majestic  shape  of  a  good  Pieform  Bill  made  perfect. 
The  resolutions  which  Mr.  Disraeli  proposed  to  submit  to 
the  House  were  for  the  most  part  sufficiently  absurd.  Some 
of  them  were  platitudes  which  it  could  not  be  worth  anyone's 
while  to  take  the  trouble  of  affirming  by  formal  resolution. 
But  most  of  the  resolutions  embodied  propositions  such  as  no 
Prime  Minister  could  possibly  have  expected  the  House  to 
agree  on  without  violent  struggles,  determined  resistance,  and 
eager  divisions.  The  Liberal  party,  especially  that  section  of 
it  which  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Mr.  Bright,  would 
have  had  to  be  beaten  to  its  knees  before  it  would  consent  to 
accept  some  of  these  devices.  Mr.  Disraeli  seems  to  have 
learned  almost  at  once,  from  the  demeanour  of  the  House, 
that  it  would  be  hopeless  to  press  his  resolutions.  On 
February  25  he  quietly  substituted  for  them  a  sort  of 
Pteform  Bill  which  he  announced  that  the  Government 
intended  to  introduce.  The  occupation  franchise  in  boroughs 
was  to  be  reduced  to  six  jDounds,  and  in  counties  to  twenty 
pounds,  in  each  case  the  qualification  to  be  based  on  rating ; 
that  is,  the  right  of  a  man  to  vote  was  to  be  made 
dependent  on  the  arrangements  by  his  local  vestry  or  other 
rate-imposing  body.  There  were  to  be  all  manner  of  '  fancy 
franchises.'  There  seemed  something  unintelligible,  or  at 
least  mysterious,  about  the  manner  in  which  this  bill  was 
introduced.  It  was  to  all  appearance  not  based  upon  the 
resolutions ;  certainly  it  made  no  reference  to  some  of  the 
more  important  of  their  provisions.  It  never  had  any  sub- 
stantial existence.  The  House  of  Commons  received  with 
contemptuous  indifference  Mr.  Disraeli's  explanation  of  its 
contents,  and  the  very  next  day  Mr.  Disraeli  announced  that 
the  Governmont  had  determined  to  withdraw  it,  to  give  up  at 
the  same  time  the  wdiolc  plan  of  proceeding  by  resolution;: 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM^  301 

and  to  introduce  a  real  and  substantial  Eeform  Bill  in  a  few 
days. 

Parliament  and  the  public  were  amazed  at  these  sudden 
changes.  The  whole  thing  seemed  turning  into  burlesque. 
The  session  had  seen  only  a  few  days,  and  here  already  w^as  a 
third  variation  in  the  shape  of  the  Government's  reform  pro- 
ject. To  increase  the  confusion  and  scandal  it  was  announced 
three  or  four  days  after  that  three  leading  members  of  the 
Cabinet — General  Peel,  Lord  Carnarvon,  and  Lord  Cranborne 
—had  resigned.  The  whole  story  at  last  came  out.  The 
revelation  was  due  to  the  '  magnificent  indiscretion '  of  Sir 
John  Pakington,  whose  lucky  incapacity  to  keep  a  secret  has 
curiously  enriched  one  chapter  of  the  political  history  of  his 
time.  In  consequence  of  the  necessary  reconstruction  of  the 
Cabinet,  Sir  John  Pakington  was  transferred  from  the 
Admiralty  to  the  War  Office,  and  had  to  go  down  to  his  con- 
stituents of  Droitwich  for  re-election.  In  the  fulness  of  his 
heart  he  told  a  story  which  set  all  England  laughing.  The 
Government,  it  would  appear,  started  with  two  distinct 
Pieform  Bills,  one  more  comprehensive  and  liberal,  as  they 
considered,  than  the  other.  The  latter  was  kept  ready  only 
as  a  last  resource,  in  case  the  first  should  meet  with  a  chilling 
reception  from  the  Conservatism  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
In  that  emergency  they  proposed  to  be  ready  to  produce  their 
less  comprehensive  scheme.  The  more  liberal  measure  was 
to  have  been  strictly  based  on  the  resolutions.  The  Cabinet 
met  on  Saturday,  February  23,  and  then,  as  Sir  John 
Pakington  said,  he  and  others  were  under  the  impression  that 
thoy  had  come  to  a  perfect  understanding ;  that  they  were 
unanimous ;  and  that  the  comprehensive  measure  was  to  be 
introduced  on  Monday,  the  25th.  On  that  Monday,  however, 
the  Cabinet  were  hastily  summoned  together.  Sir  John 
rushed  to  the  spot,  and  a  piece  of  alarming  news  awaited  him. 
Some  leading  members  of  the  Cabinet  had  refused  point  blank 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  comprehensive  bill.  Here 
was  a  coil !  It  was  two  o'clock.  Lord  Derby  had  to  address 
a  meeting  of  the  Conservative  party  at  half -past  two.  Mr. 
Disraeli  had  to  introduce  the  bill,  some  bill,  in  the  House  of 
Commons  at  half-past  four.  Something  must  be  done.  Some 
bill  must  be  introduced.  All  eyes,  we  may  suppose,  glanced 
at  the  clock.  Sir  John  Pakington  averred  that  there  were 
only  ten  minutes  left  for  decision.  It  is  plain  that  no  man, 
whatever  his  gift  of  statesmanship  or  skill  of  penmanship,  can 


303        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxI. 

draw  up  a  complete  Keform  Bill  in  ten  minutes.  Now  came 
into  full  light  the  wisdom  and  providence  of  those  who  had 
hit  upon  the  plan  of  keeping  a  second-class  bill,  if  we  may  use 
such  an  expression,  ready  for  emergencies.  Out  came  the 
second-class  bill,  and  it  was  promptly  resolved  that  Mr. 
Disraeli  should  go  down  to  the  House  of  Commons  and 
gravely  introduce  that,  as  if  it  were  the  measure  which  the 
Government  had  all  along  had  it  in  their  minds  to  bring  for- 
ward. Sir  John  defended  that  resolution  with  simple  and 
practical  earnestness.  It  was  not  a  wise  resolve,  he  admitted; 
but  who  can  be  certain  of  acting  wisely  with  only  ten  minutes 
for  deliberation  ?  If  they  had  had  even  an  hour  to  think  the 
matter  over,  he  had  no  doubt,  he  said,  that  they  would  not 
have  made  any  mistake.  But  they  had  not  an  hour,  and 
there  was  an  end  of  the  matter.  They  had  to  do  some- 
thing; and  so  Mr.  Disraeli  brought  in  his  second-class 
measure  ;  the  measure  which  Sir  John  Pakington's  piquant 
explanation  sent  down  into  political  history  with  the  name  of 
the  *  Ten  Minutes'  Bill.' 

The  trouble  arose,  it  seems,  in  this  way.  After  the  Cabinet 
broke  up  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  February  23,  in  seeming 
harmony,  Lord  Cranborne  worked  out  the  figures  of  the  bill, 
and  found  that  they  would  almost  amount  to  household 
suffrage  in  some  of  the  boroughs.  That  would  never  do,  he 
thought ;  and  so  he  tendered  his  resignation.  This  would 
almost,  as  a  matter  of  course,  involve  other  resignations  too. 
Therefore  came  the  hasty  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  on  IMonday, 
the  25th,  which  Sir  John  Pakington  described  with  such  un- 
conscious humour.  Lord  Cranborne,  and  those  who  thought 
with  him,  were  induced  to  remain,  on  condition  that  the  com- 
prehensive bill  should  be  quietly  put  aside,  and  the  ten  minutes' 
bill  as  quietly  substituted.  Unfortunately,  the  reception  given 
to  the  ten  minutes'  bill  was  utterly  discouraging.  It  was  clear 
to  Mr.  Disraeli's  experienced  eye  that  it  had  not  a  chance  from 
cither  side  of  the  House.  Mr.  Disraeli  made  up  his  mind,  and 
Lord  Derby  assented.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to 
fall  back  on  the  comprehensive  measure.  Unwilling  col- 
leagues must  act  upon  their  convictions  and  go.  It  would  bo 
idle  to  secure  their  co-operation  by  persevering  further  with  a 
bill  that  no  one  would  have.  Therefore  it  was  that  on  February 
2G  Mr.  Disraeli  withdrew  his  bill  of  the  day  before,  the  ten 
minutes'  bill^  and  announced  that  the  Government  would  go 
to  work  in  good  earnest,  and  bring  in  a  real  bill  on  March  18. 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM,  303 

This  proved  to  be  the  bill  based  on  the  resolutions ;  the  com- 
prehensive bill,  which  had  been  suddenly  put  out  of  sight  at 
the  hasty  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  on  Monday,  February  25,  as 
described  in  the  artless  and  unforgotten  eloquence  of  Sir  John 
Pakington's  Droitwich  speech.  Then  General  Peel,  Lord 
Carnarvon,  and  Lord  Cranborne  resigned  their  offices.  For 
the  second  time  within  ten  years  a  Conservative  Cabinet  had 
been  split  up  on  a  question  of  Keform  and  the  Borough 
Franchise. 

It  must  be  owned  that  it  required  some  courage  and  nerve 
on  Mr.  Disraeli's  part  to  face  the  House  of  Commons  with 
another  scheme  and   a  newly-constructed   Cabinet,  after  all 
these  surprises.     The  first  thing  to  do  was  to  reorganise  the 
Cabinet  by  getting  a  new  War  Secretary,  Colonial  Secretary, 
and  Secretary  for  Lidia.     Before  March  8  this  was  accom- 
plished.    The  men  who  had  resigned  carried  with  them  intc 
their  retirement  the  respect  of  all  their  political  opponents. 
During   his  short  administration  of  India,  Lord  Cranborne 
had  shown  not  merely  capacity,  for  that  everyone  knew  he 
possessed,  but  a  gravity,  self-restraint,  and  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, for  which  even  his  friends  had  not   previously  given 
him  credit.     Sir  John  Pakington  became  War  Minister,  Mr. 
Corry  succeeding  him  as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty.     The 
Duke  of  Buckingham  became  Colonial  Secretary.     The  ad- 
ministration of  the  India  Department  was  transferred  to  Sir 
Stafford  Northcote,  whose  place  at  the  head  of    the   Board 
of  Trade  thus  vacated  was  taken  by  the  Duke  of  Pdchmond. 
Then,  having  thrown  their  mutineers  overboard,  the  Govern- 
ment went  to  work  again  at  their  Pieform  scheme.     On  March 
18  Mr.  Disraeli  introduced  the  bill.    As  regarded  the  franchise, 
this  measure  proposed  that  in  boroughs  all  who  paid  rates,  or 
twenty  shillings  a  year  in  direct  taxation,   should  have  the 
vote;  and  also  that  property  in  the  funds  and  savings  banks, 
and  so  forth,   should  be  honoured  with  the  franchise ;    and 
that  there  should  be  a  certain  educational  franchise  as  well. 
The  clauses  for  the  extension  of  the  franchise  were  counter- 
balanced and  fenced  around  with  all  manner  of  ingeniously 
devised  qualifications  to  prevent  the  force  of  numbers  among 
the  poorer  classes  from   having  too  much  of  its   own  way. 
There  was  a  disheartening  elaborateness  of  ingenuity  in  all 
these  devices.     The  machine  was  far  too  daintily  adjusted ; 
the  checks  and  balances  were  too  cleverly  arranged  by  half ; 
it  was  apparent  to  almost  every  eye  that  some  parts  of  the 


304        A  SH0R7'  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.    CH.  XXI. 

mechanism  would  infallibly  get  out  of  working  order,  and 
that  some  others  would  never  get  into  it.  Mr.  Bright  com- 
pared the  whole  scheme  to  a  plan  for  offering  something 
with  one  hand  and  quietly  withdrawing  it  with  the  other. 
There  was,  however,  one  aspect  of  the  situation  which  to 
many  Reformers  seemed  decidedly  hopeful.  It  was  plain  to 
them  now  that  the  Government  were  determined  to  do  any- 
thing whatever  in  order  to  get  a  Reform  Bill  of  some  kind 
passed  that  year.  They  would  have  anything  which  could 
command  a  majority  rather  than  nothing.  Lord  Derby  after- 
wards frankly  admitted  that  he  did  not  see  why  a  monopoly  of 
Reform  should  be  left  to  the  Liberals  ;  and  Mr.  Disraeli  had 
clearly  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  not  go  out  of  office 
this  time  on  a  Reform  Bill. 

The  leading  spirits  of  the  Government  were  now  deter- 
mined to  carry  a  Reform  Bill  that  session,  come  what  would. 
One  by  one,  all  Mr.  Disraeli's  checks,  balances,  and  securities 
were  abandoned.  The  fancy  franchises  were  swept  clear 
away.  At  various  stages  of  the  bill  Mr.  Disraeli  kept  an- 
nouncing that  if  this  or  that  amendment  were  carried  against 
the  Government,  the  Government  would  not  go  any  further 
with  the  bill ;  but  when  the  particular  amendment  was  carried, 
Mr.  Disraeli  always  announced  that  Ministers  had  changed 
their  minds  after  all,  and  were  willing  to  accept  the  new 
alteration.  At  last  this  little  piece  of  formality  began  to  be 
regarded  by  the  House  as  mere  ceremonial.  The  bill  became 
in  the  end  a  measure  to  establish  household  suffrage  pure  and 
simple  in  the  towns.  The  Reform  Bill  passed  through  its  final 
stage  on  August  15,  1867.  We  may  summarise  its  results  thus 
concisely.  It  enfranchised  in  boroughs  all  male  householders 
rated  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  all  lodgers  resident  for  one 
year,  and  paying  not  less  than  10/.  a  year  rent ;  and  in  coun- 
ties, persons  of  property  of  the  clear  annual  value  of  5/.,  and 
occupiers  of  lands  or  tenements  paying  127.  a  year.  It  disfran- 
chised certain  small  boroughs,  and  reduced  the  representation 
of  other  constituencies ;  it  created  several  new  constituencies  ; 
among  others  the  borough  of  Chelsea  and  the  borough  of 
Hackney.  It  gave  a  third  member  to  Manchester,  Liverpool, 
Birmingham,  and  Leeds ;  it  gave  a  representative  to  the 
University  of  London.  It  secured  a  sort  of  representation  of 
minorities  in  certain  constituencies  by  enacting  that  where 
there  were  to  be  three  representatives,  each  elector  should 
vote  for  only  two  candidates ;  and  that  \i\  the  City  of  London, 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM.  305 

which  has  four  members,  each  elector  should  only  vote  for 
three.  The  Irish  and  Scotch  Eeform  Bills  were  put  off  for 
another  year.  We  may,  however,  anticipate  a  little,  and  dis- 
pose of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  Bills  at  once,  the  more  especially 
as  both  proved  to  be  very  trivial  and  unsatisfactory.  The 
Scotch  Bill  gave  Scotland  a  borough  franchise  the  same  as 
that  of  England ;  and  a  county  fi:anchise  based  either  on  5Z. 
clear  annual  value  of  property,  or  an  occupation  of  14L  a 
year.  The  Government  proposed  at  first  to  make  the  county 
occupation  franchise  the  same  as  that  in  England.  All  quali- 
fication as  to  rating  for  the  poor  was,  however,  struck  out  of 
the  bill  by  amendments,  the  rating  systems  of  Scotland  being 
unlike  those  of  England.  The  Government  then  put  in  14Z. 
as  the  equivalent  of  the  English  occupier's  Vll.  rating  fran- 
chise. Some  new  seats  were  given  to  Scotland,  which  the 
Government  at  first  proposed  to  get  by  increasing  the  number 
of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  but  which  they  were 
forced  by  amendments  to  obtain  by  the  disfranchisement  of 
some  small  Enghsh  boroughs.  The  Irish  Bill  is  hardly  worth 
mentionmg.  It  left  the  county  franchise  as  it  was,  12Z.,  re- 
duced the  borough  franchise  from  8^.  to  4^.,  and  did  nothing 
in  the  way  of  redistribution. 

While  the  English  Eeform  Bill  was  passing  through  its 
several  stages,  the  Government  went  deliberately  out  of  their 
way  to  make  themselves  again  ridiculous  with  regard  to  the 
public  meetings  in  Hyde  Park.  The  Eeform  League  convened 
a  public  meeting  to  be  held  m  that  park  on  May  6.  Mr. 
Walpole,  on  May  1,  issued  a  proclamation  mtended  to  prevent 
the  meeting,  and  warning  all  persons  not  to  attend  it.  The 
League  took  legal  advice,  found  that  their  meeting  would  not 
be  contrary  to  law,  and  accordingly  issued  a  counter  procla- 
mation asserting  their  right,  and  declaring  that  the  meeting 
would  be  held  in  order  to  maintain  it.  The  Government  found 
out  a  little  too  late  that  the  League  had  strict  law  on  their 
side.  The  law  gave  to  the  Crown  control  over  the  parks,  and 
the  right  of  prosecutmg  trespassers  of  any  kind ;  but  it  gave 
the  Administration  no  power  to  anticipate  trespass  from  the 
holdmg  of  a  public  meeting,  and  to  prohibit  it  in  advance. 
The  meeting  was  held ;  it  was  watched  by  a  large  body  of 
police  and  soldiers ;  but  it  passed  over  very  quietly,  and 
indeed  to  curious  spectators  looking  for  excitement  seemed  a 
very  humdrum  sort  of  affair.  Mr.  Walpole,  the  Home  Secre- 
tary,  who   had   long  been  growing  weary  of   the  thankless 


306        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,    cii.  xxi. 

troubles  of  his  office  at  a  time  of  such  excitement,  and  who 
was  not  strong  enough  to  face  the  difficulties  of  the  hour, 
resigned  his  post.  Mr.  Walpole  retained,  however,  his  seat  in 
the  Cabinet.  He  was  a  man  highly  esteemed  by  all  parties  ; 
a  man  of  high  principle  and  of  amiable  character.  But  he 
was  not  equal  to  the  occasion  when  any  difficulty  arose,  and 
he  contrived  to  put  himself  almost  invariably  in  the  wrong 
when  dealing  with  the  Keform  League.  He  exerted  his 
authority  at  a  wrong  time,  and  in  a  wrong  way ;  and  he  gene- 
rally withdrew  from  his  wrong  position  in  somewhat  too 
penitent  and  humble  an  attitude.  He  strained  too  far  the 
authority  of  his  place,  and  he  did  not  hold  high  enough  its 
dignity.  He  was  succeeded  in  office  by  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy, 
who  left  the  Poor  Law  Board  to  become  Home  Secretary. 

The  Keform  Bill  then  was  passed.  The  '  Leap  in  the 
Dark  '  was  taken.  Thus  did  the  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Derby, 
describe  the  policy  of  himself  and  his  colleagues.  The  phrase 
has  become  historical,  and  its  authorship  is  invariably  ascribed 
to  Lord  Derby.  It  was  in  fact  Lord  Cranborne  who  first  used 
it.  During  the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  he  had 
taunted  the  Government  with  taking  a  leap  in  the  dark.  Lord 
Derby  adopted  the  expression,  and  admitted  it  to  be  a  just 
description  of  the  movement  which  he  and  his  Ministry  had 
made.  It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the  Government  acted 
sagaciously  in  settling  the  question  so  promptly  and  so  deci- 
sively ;  in  agreeing  to  almost  anything  rather  than  postpone 
the  settlement  of  the  controversy  even  for  another  year.  But 
one  is  still  lost  in  wonder  at  the  boldness,  the  audacity,  with 
which  the  Conservative  Government  threw  away  in  succession 
every  principle  which  they  had  just  been  proclaiming  essential 
to  Conservatism,  and  put  on  Kadicalism  in  its  stead.  The 
one  thing,  however,  which  most  people  were  thinking  of  in  the 
autumn  of  1867  was  that  the  Eeform  question  was  settled  at 
last,  and  for  a  long  time.  Mr.  Lowe  is  entitled  to  the  closing 
word  of  the  controversy.  The  working  men,  the  majority, 
the  people  who  live  in  the  small  houses,  are  enfranchised ; 
*  we  must  now,'  Mr.  Lowe  said,  *  at  least  educate  our  new 
masters.' 

While  this  great  measure  of  domestic  reform  was  being 
accomplished  a  great  colonial  reform  was  quietly  carried  out. 
On  February  19,  18G7,  Lord  Carnarvon,  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies,  moved  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  for  the  Con- 
federation of  the  North  Ameiican  Provinces  of  the  British 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM.  307 

Empire.  This  was  in  fact  a  measure  to  carry  out  in  practical 
form  the  great  principles  which  Lord  Durham  had  laid  down 
in  his  celebrated  report.  The  bill  prepared  by  Lord  Carnar- 
von proposed  that  the  provinces  of  Ontario  and  Quebec,  in 
other  words  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  along  with  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  should  be  joined  in  one  federa- 
tion, to  be  called  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  having  a  central 
or  federal  Parliament,  and  local  or  state  Legislatures.  The 
central  Parliament  was  to  consist  of  a  Senate  and  a  House  of 
Commons.  The  Senate  was  to  be  made  up  of  seventy  mem- 
bers nominated  by  the  Governor- General  for  life,  on  a 
summons  from  under  the  Great  Seal  of  Canada.  The  House 
of  Commons  was  to  be  filled  by  members  elected  by  the 
people  of  the  provinces  according  to  population,  at  the  rate  of 
one  member  for  every  17,000  persons,  and  the  duration  of  a 
Parliament  was  not  to  be  more  than  five  years.  The  execu- 
tive was  vested  in  the  Crown,  represented  of  course  by  the 
Governor- General.  The  central  Parliament  manages  the 
common  affairs  ;  each  province  has  its  own  local  laws  and 
legislature.  There  is  the  greatest  possible  variety  and  diver- 
sity in  the  local  systems  of  the  different  provmces  of  the 
Dominion.  The  members  are  elected  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  the  most  diverse  principles  of  suffrage.  In  some  of 
the  provinces  the  vote  is  open  ;  in  others  it  is  given  by  ballot, 
in  secret.  The  Dominion  scheme  only  provided  at  first  for  the 
Confederation  of  the  two  Canadian  provinces  with  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick.  Provision  was  made,  however,  for  the 
admission  of  any  other  province  of  British  North  America 
v/hich  should  desire  to  follow  suit.  The  newly  constructed 
province  of  Manitoba,  made  up  out  of  what  had  been  the 
Hudson's  Bay  territories,  was  the  first  to  come  in.  It  was 
admitted  into  the  union  in  1870.  British  Columbia  and  Van- 
couver's Island  followed  in  1871,  and  Prince  Edward's  Island 
claimed  admission  in  1873.  The  Dominion  now  embraces  the 
whole  of  the  regions  constituting  British  North  America,  with 
the  exception  of  Newfoundland,  which  still  prefers  its  lonely 
system  of  quasi-independence.  It  may  be  assumed,  however, 
that  this  curious  isolation  will  not  last  long ;  and  the  Act 
constituting  the  Dominion  opens  the  door  for  the  entrance  of 
this  latest  lingerer  outside  whenever  she  may  think  fit  to 
claim  admission. 

The  idea  of  a  federation  of  the  provinces  of  British  North 
America  was  not  new  in  1867,  or  even  in  the  days  of  Lord 


3o8         A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.    CH.  xxi. 

Durham.  When  the  delegates  of  the  revolted  American 
colonies  were  discussing  among  themselves  their  terms  of 
federation,  they  agreed  in  their  articles  of  union,  that  Canada 
*  acceding  to  the  Confederation  and  joining  in  the  measures  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  admitted  into  and  entitled  to  the 
advantages  of  the  union.'  No  answer  to  this  appeal  was  made 
by  either  of  the  Canadas,  but  the  idea  of  union  among  the 
British  provinces  among  themselves  evidently  took  root  then. 
As  early  as  1810  a  colonist  put  forward  a  somewhai  elaborate 
scheme  for  the  union  of  the  jprovinces.  In  1814  Chief  Justice 
Sewell,  of  Quebec,  submitted  a  plan  of  union  to  the  Duke  of 
Kent.  In  1827  resolutions  were  introduced  into  the  Legisla- 
tive Assembly  of  Upper  Canada,  having  relation  principally  to 
a  combination  of  the  two  Canadas,  but  also  suggesting  some- 
thing *  more  politic,  wise,  and  generally  advantageous ;  viz. 
an  union  of  the  whole  four  provinces  of  North  America  under 
a  viceroyalty,  with  a  facsimile  of  that  great  and  glorious  fabric, 
the  best  monument  of  human  wisdom,  the  British  Constitu- 
tion.' Nothing  further,  however,  was  done  to  advance  the 
principle  of  federation  until  after  the  rebellion  in  Canada,  and 
the  brief  dictatorship  of  Lord  Durham.  Then,  as  we  have, 
already  said,  the  foundation  of  the  system  was  laid.  In  1849 
an  association,  called  the  North  American  League,  was 
formed,  which  held  a  meeting  in  Toronto  to  promote  Confe- 
deration. In  1854  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  Nova  Scotia 
discussed  and  adopted  resolutions  recommending  the  closer 
connection  of  the  British  provinces ;  and  in  1857  the  same 
province  urged  the  question  upon  the  consideration  of  Mr. 
Labouchere,  afterwards  Lord  Taunton,  and  then  Colonial 
Secretary.  Mr.  Labouchere  seems  to  have  thought  that  the 
Imperial  Government  had  better  not  meddle  or  make  in  the 
matter,  but  leave  it  altogether  for  the  spontaneous  action  of 
the  colonists.  In  the  following  year  the  coalition  Ministry  of 
Canada,  during  the  Governor- Greneralship  of  Sir  Francis 
Head,  made  a  move  by  entering  into  communications  with 
the  Imperial  Government  and  v/ith  the  other  American  pro- 
vinces. The  other  provinces  hung  back  however,  and  nothing 
came  of  this  effort.  Then  Nova  Scotia  tried  to  get  up  a 
scheme  of  union  between  herself.  New  Brunswick,  and  Prince 
Edward's  Island.  Canada  offered  to  enter  into  the  scheme ; 
and  in  1864  Mr.  Cardwell,  then  Colonial  Secretary,  gave  it 
his  approval.  New  conferences  were  held  in  Quebec,  but  the 
plan  was  not  successful.     New  Brunswick  seems  to  have  held 


CH.  XXI.  REFORM.  309 

back  this  time.  It  was  clear,  however,  that  the  provinces 
were  steadily  moving  toward  an  agreement,  and  that  a  basis  of 
federation  would  be  found  before  long.  The  maritime  pro- 
vinces always  felt  some  difficulty  in  seeing  their  way  to  union 
with  the  Canadas.  Their  outlying  position  and  their  distance 
from  the  proposed  seat  of  central  government  made  one 
obvious  reason  for  hesitation.  Even  at  the  time  when  the 
bill  for  Confederation  was  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  Nova  Scotia  was  still  holding  back.  That  difficulty, 
however,  was  got  over,  and  the  Act  was  passed  in  March 
1867.  Lord  Monck  was  made  the  first  Governor- General  of 
the  new  Dommion,  and  its  first  Parliament  met  at  Ottawa  in 
November  of  the  same  year. 

In  1869 — we  are  now  somewhat  anticipating — the  Domi- 
nion was  enlarged  by  the  acquisition  of  the  famous  Hudson's 
Bay  territory.  When  the  Charter  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, which  dated  from  the  reign  of  Charles  11. ,  expired  in 
1869,  Lord  Granville,  then  Colonial  Secretary,  proposed  that 
the  chief  part  of  the  Company's  territories  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Dominion  for  300,000/.  ;  and  the  proposition  was 
agreed  to  on  both  sides.  The  Ked  Kiver  country,  a  portion  of 
the  transferred  territory,  rose  in  rebellion,  and  refused  to 
receive  the  new  Governor.  Louis  Eiel,  the  insurgent  chief, 
seized  on  Fort  Garry  and  the  Company's  treasury,  and  pro- 
claimed the  independence  of  the  settlement.  Colonel  Wolse- 
ley,  now  Lord  Wolseley,  was  sent  in  command  of  an  expedi- 
tion which  reached  Fort  Garry  on  August  23,  when  the 
insurgents  submitted  without  resistance,  and  the  district 
received  the  name  of  Manitoba.  Thus  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
now  stretches  from  ocean  to  ocean.  The  population  of  British 
North  America  did  not  exceed  one  million  and  a  half  in  1841, 
at  the  time  of  the  granting  of  the  Constitution,  and  it  is  now 
over  four  millions.  The  revenue  of  the  provinces  has  multiplied 
more  than  twentyfold  during  the  same  time.  Canada  has  every- 
thing that  ought  to  make  a  commonwealth  great  and  prosperous. 
The  fisheries  of  her  maritime  provinces,  the  coal  and  iron  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts,  the  grain-producing  regions  of 
the  North-West,  the  superb  St.  Lawrence,  hardly  rivalled  on 
the  globe  as  a  channel  of  commerce  from  the  interior  of  a 
country  to  the  ocean — all  these  are  guarantees  of  a  great 
future. 

Equal  with  Canada  in  importance  are  the  Australian 
islands.     Australia  now  consists  of  five  separate  colonies— 


3IO        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.   CH.  xxi. 

New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  Western  Australia,  Souili  Aus- 
tralia, and  Queensland ;  all  these  are  provinces  of  one  vast 
island,  the  largest  island  in  the  world.  New  Zealand  and 
Tasmania  are  other  islands  of  the  Australasian  group.  All 
these  colonies  have  now  representative  government,  with 
responsible  ministries  and  parliamentary  Chambers.  New 
South  Wales  is  the  oldest  of  the  provinces  of  Australia.  Its 
political  life  may  be  said  to  date  from  1853,  when  it  first 
received  what,  is  fairly  to  be  called  a  constitution.  For  ten 
years  previously  it  had  possessed  a  sort  of  legislature,  consist- 
ing of  a  single  Chamber,  of  which  half  the  members  were 
nominee,  and  the  other  half  elected.  One  of  the  most  distin- 
guished members  of  that  Chamber  for  many  years  was  Mr. 
Lowe,  who  appears  to  have  learned  to  hate  democratic 
government  from  watching  over  its  earliest  infancy,  as  some 
women  imbibe  a  dislike  to  all  children  from  having  had  to  do 
too  much  nursery-work  in  their  girlhood.  Victoria,  which  was 
separated  from  New  South  Wales  in  1851,  got  her  liberal  con- 
stitution in  1856.  The  other  colonies  followed  by  degrees. 
The  constitutional  systems  differ  among  themselves  as  to  cer- 
tain of  their  details.  The  electoral  qualification,  for  example, 
differs  considerably.  Generally  speaking,  however,  they  may 
be  set  down  as  all  alike  illustrating  the  principles  and  exercis- 
ing the  influence  of  representative  government.  They  have 
not  got  on  so  far  without  much  confusion  and  many  sad  mis- 
takes. The  constitutional  controversies  and  difiiculties  in 
Victoria  and  in  other  Australian  colonies  are  a  favourite 
example  with  some  writers  and  speakers,  to  show  the  failure 
of  the  democratic  principle  in  government.  But  it  is  always 
forgotten  that  the  principle  of  representative  government  in 
a  colony  like  Victoria  is,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  that  of 
democracy.  Even  those  who  believe  the  aristocratic  influence 
invaluable  in  the  life  of  a  nation  must  see  that  New  South 
Wales  and  Victoria  and  Queensland  miist  somehow  contrive 
to  do  without  such  an  influence.  An  aristocracy  cannot  be 
imported ;  nor  can  it  be  sown  in  the  evening  to  grow  up  next 
morning.  The  colonists  are  compelled  to  construct  a  system 
without  it.  There  are  many  difficulties  in  their  way.  It  is 
often  carelessly  said  that  they  ought  to  find  the  work  easy 
enough,  because  they  have  the  example  and  the  experience  of 
England  to  guide  them.  But  they  have  no  such  guide.  The 
conditions  under  which  the  colonics  have  to  create  a  con- 
stitutional system  ar«i  entirely  different  from  those  of  Eng* 


cii.  XXI.  _  REFORM.  311 

land ;  so  different,  indeed,  that  there  must  be  a  certaii. 
danger  of  going  astray  simply  from  trying  to  follow  Eng- 
land's example  mader  circumstances  entirely  unlike  those  of 
England, 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

STRIFE    AT    HOME    AND   ABEOAU. 

On  February  16,  186G,  Lord  Eussell  told  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  Sir  George  Grey  announced  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  the  Government  intended  to  suspend  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  in  Ireland,  and  that  both  Houses  of 
Parliament  were  to  be  called  together  next  day  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enabling  the  Ministry  to  carry  out  this  resolve. 
The  next  day  was  Saturday,  an  unusual  day  for  a  Parlia- 
mentary sitting  at  any  early  part  of  the  session ;  unusual, 
indeed,  when  the  session  had  only  just  begun.  The  Govern- 
ment could  only  excuse  such  a  summons  to  the  Lords  and 
Commons  on  the  plea  of  absolute  urgency  ;  and  the  word  soon 
went  round  in  the  lobbies  that  a  serious  discovery  had  been 
made,  and  that  a  conspiracy  of  a  formidable  nature  was  pre- 
paring a  rebellion  in  Ireland.  The  two  Houses  met  next  day, 
and  a  measure  was  introduced  to  suspend  the  Habeas  Corjms 
Act  in  Ireland,  and  give  the  Lord-Lieutenant  almost  un- 
limited power  to  arrest  and  detain  suspected  persons.  It  seems 
almost  superfluous  to  say  that  such  a  bill  was  not  allowed  to 
pass  without  some  comment,  and  even  some  opposition,  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Mr.  Mill  spoke  against  it.  Mr.  Bright 
made  a  speech  which  has  always  since  been  regarded  as  in 
every  sense  one  of  the  very  finest  he  ever  delivered.  The 
measure  however  was  run  through  its  three  readings  in  both 
Houses  in  the  course  of  the  day.  The  House  of  Lords  had  to 
keep  up  their  sitting  until  the  document  should  arrive  from 
Osborne  to  authorise  the  Commissioners  to  give  the  Queen's 
assent  to  the  bill.  The  Lords,  therefore,  having  discussed  the 
subject  sufficiently  to  their  satisfaction  at  a  comparatively  early 
hour  of  the  evening,  suspended  the  sitting  until  eleven  at  night. 
They  then  resumed,  and  waited  patiently  for  the  authority  to 
come  from  Osborne,  where  the  Queen  was  staying.  Shortly 
before  midnight  the  needful  authority  arrived,  and  the  bill 
became  law  at  twenty  minutes  before  one  o'clock  on  Sunday 
morning. 


312     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxil. 

The  Fenian  movement  differed  from  nearly  all  previous 
movements  of  the  same  kind  in  Ireland,  in  the  fact  that  it 
arose  and  grew  into  strength  without  the  patronage  or  the 
help  of  any  of  those  who  might  be  called  the  natural  leaders 
of  the  people.  In  1798  and  in  1848  some  men  of  great  ability, 
or  strength  of  purpose,  or  high  position,  or  all  attributes  com- 
bined, made  themselves  leaders,  and  the  others  followed.  In 
1798  the  rising  had  the  impulse  of  almost  intolerable  personal 
as  well  as  national  grievance  ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
formidable  and  organised  movement  might  have  been  made 
but  for  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Wolfe  Tone  and  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald.  In  1848  there  were  such  impulses  as  the 
traditional  leadership  of  Smith  O'Brien,  the  indomitable  pur- 
pose of  Mitchel,  and  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  Meagher. 
But  Fenianism  seemed  to  have  sprung  out  of  the  very  soil  of 
Ireland  itself.  Its  leaders  were  not  men  of  high  position,  or 
distinguished  name,  or  proved  ability.  They  were  not  of 
aristocratic  birth ;  they  were  not  orators ;  they  were  not 
powerful  writers.  It  was  not  the  impulse  of  the  American 
Civil  War  that  engendered  Fenianism ;  although  that  war 
had  great  influence  on  the  manner  in  which  Fenianism  shaped 
its  course.  Fenianism  had  been  in  existence,  in  fact,  although 
it  had  not  got  its  peculiar  name,  long  before  the  American 
War  created  a  new  race  of  Irishmen — the  Irish-American 
soldiers — to  turn  their  energies  and  their  military  inclination 
to  a  new  purpose. 

Agitation  in  the  form  of  secret  association  had  never 
ceased  in  Ireland.  One  result  of  prosecutions  for  seditious 
speaking  and  writing  in  Ireland  is  invariably  the  encourage- 
ment of  secret  combination.  The  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act,  in  consequence  of  the  1848  movement,  led,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  to  secret  association.  Before  the  trials  of 
the  Irish  leaders  were  well  over  in  that  year,  a  secret  associa- 
tion was  formed  by  a  large  number  of  young  Irishmen  in 
cities  and  towns.  It  was  got  up  by  young  men  of  good  cha- 
racter and  education ;  it  spread  from  town  to  town  ;  it  was 
conducted  with  the  most  absolute  secrecy  ;  it  had  no  informer 
in  its  ranks.  It  had  its  oatli  of  fidelity  and  its  regular  leaders, 
its  nightly  meetings,  and  even  to  a  limited  and  cautious  extent 
its  nightly  drillings.  It  was  a  failure,  because  in  the  nature 
of  things  it  could  not  be  anything  else.  The  young  men  had 
not  arms  enough  anywhere  to  render  them  forjnidable  in  any 
one  place ;  and  the  necessity  of  carrying  on  their  connnunica- 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  313 

tions  with  different  towns  in  profound  secrecy,  and  by  roui-d- 
about  ways  of  communication,  made  a  prompt  concerted  action 
impossible.  After  two  or  three  attempts  to  arrange  for  ft 
simultaneous  rising  had  failed,  or  had  ended  only  in  little  abor- 
tive and  isolated  ebullitions,  the  yomig  men  became  dis- 
couraged. Some  of  the  leaders  went  to  France,  some  to  the 
United  States,  some  actually  to  England ;  and  the  association 
melted  away.  Some  years  after  this,  the  '  Phoenix  '  clubs 
began  to  be  formed  in  Ireland.  They  were  for  the  most  part 
associations  of  the  peasant  class ;  they  led  to  some  of  the  ordi- 
nary prosecutions  and  convictions  ;  and  that  was  all.  After 
the  Phoenix  associations  came  the  Fenians.  The  Fenians  are 
said  to  have  been  the  ancient  Irish  militia.  The  Fenian 
agitation  began  about  1858,  and  it  came  to  perfection  about 
the  middle  of  the  American  Civil  War.  A  convention  was 
held  in  America,  and  the  Fenian  Association  was  resolved  into 
a  regular  organised  institution.  A  provisional  government 
was  established  in  New  York,  with  all  the  array  and  the 
mechanism  of  an  actual  working  administration. 

The  emigration  of  the  Irish  to  America  had  introduced  an 
entirely  new  element  into  political  calculations.  The  Irish 
grew  rapidly  in  numbers  and  in  strength  all  over  the  United 
States.  The  constitutional  system  adopted  there  enabled 
them  almost  at  once  to  become  citizens  of  the  Kepublic.  They 
availed  themselves  of  this  privilege  almost  universally.  The 
Irish  working  man,  who  had  never  probably  had  any  chance 
of  giving  a  vote  in  his  own  country,  found  himself  in  the  United 
States  a  person  of  political  power,  whose  vote  was  courted 
by  the  leaders  of  different  parties,  and  whose  sentiments 
were  flattered  by  the  wire-pullers  of  opposing  factions.  He 
was  not  slow  to  appreciate  the  value  of  this  influence  in  its 
bearing  on  that  political  question  which  in  all  the  sincerity  of 
his  American  citizenship  was  still  the  dearest  to  his  heart — 
the  condition  of  Ireland.  The  Irish  in  the  States  made  their 
political  organisations  the  means  of  keeping  up  a  constant 
agitation,  having  for  its  object  to  secure  the  co-operation  of 
American  parties  in  some  designs  against  England.  After  the 
Civil  War  the  feelings  of  almost  all  the  political  parties  in  the 
States,  in  the  South  as  weU  as  in  the  North,  were  hostile  to 
England.  At  such  a  moment,  and  under  such  a  condition  of 
things,  it  is  not  surprising  if  many  of  the  Fenian  leaders  in 
America  should  have  thought  it  easy  or  at  least  quite  possible 
to  force  the  hand  of  the  Government,  and  to  bring  on  a  war 
14 


,^I4     A  SH0R2'  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxii. 

with  England.  At  all  events,  it  is  not  surprising  if  they 
should  have  believed  that  the  American  Government  would 
put  forth  little  effort  to  prevent  the  Fenians  from  using  the 
frontier  of  the  United  States  as  a  basis  of  operations  against 
England. 

Meanwhile  there  began  to  be  a  constant  mysterious  influx 
of  strangers  into  Ireland.  They  were  strangers  who  for  the 
most  part  had  Celtic  features  and  the  bearing  of  American 
soldiers.  They  distributed  themselves  throughout  the  towns 
and  villages ;  most  of  them  had  relatives  or  old  friends  here 
and  there,  to  whom  they  told  stories  of  the  share  they  had 
had  in  the  big  war  across  the  Atlantic  and  of  the  preparations 
that  were  making  in  the  States  for  the  accomplishment  of 
Irish  independence.  All  this  time  the  Fenians  in  the  States 
were  filling  the  columns  of  friendly  journals  with  accounts  of 
the  growth  of  their  organisation  and  announcements  of  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  to  be  directed  to  its  purpose.  After 
a  while  things  went  so  far  that  the  Fenian  leaders  in  the 
United  States  issued  an  address,  announcing  that  their  officers 
were  going  to  Ireland  to  raise  an  army  there  for  the  recovery 
of  the  country's  independence.  Of  course  the  Government 
here  were  soon  quite  prepared  to  receive  them ;  and  indeed 
the  authorities  easily  managed  to  keep  themselves  informed 
by  means  of  spies  of  all  that  was  going  on  in  Ireland.  The 
spy  system  was  soon  flourishing  in  full  force.  Every  con- 
siderable gathering  of  Fenians  had  amongst  its  numbers  at 
least  one  person  who  generally  professed  a  yet  fiercer  devotion 
to  the  cause  than  any  of  the  rest,  and  who  was  in  the  habit  of 
carrying  to  Dublin  Castle  every  night  his  official  report  of 
what  his  Fenian  colleagues  had  been  doing.  It  is  positively 
stated  that  in  one  instance  a  Protestant  detective  in  the  pay 
of  the  Government  actually  passed  himself  off  as  a  Catholic, 
and  took  the  Sacrament  openly  in  a  Catholic  church  in  order 
to  establish  his  Catholic  orthodoxy  in  the  eyes  of  his  com- 
panions. One  need  not  be  a  Catholic  in  order  to  understand 
the  grossness  of  the  outrage  which  conduct  like  this  must 
seem  to  be  in  the  eyes  of  all  who  believe  in  the  mysteries  of 
the  Catholic  faith.  Meanwhile  the  Head  Centre  of  Fenianism 
in  America,  James  Stephens,  who  had  borne  a  part  in  the 
movement  in  1848,  arrived  in  Ireland.  He  was  arrested  in  the 
company  of  Mr.  Charles  J.  Kickham,  the  author  of  many  poems 
of  great  sweetness  and  beauty ;  a  man  of  pure  and  virtuous 
character.     Stephens  was  committed  to  Kichmond  Prison, 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  315 

Dublin,  early  in  November  1865 ;  but  before  many  days  bad 
passed  tbe  country  was  startled  by  tbe  news  that  be  bad  con- 
trived to  make  bis  escape.  Tbe  escape  was  planned  witb  skill 
and  daring.  For  a  time  it  belped  to  strengtben  tbe  impres- 
sion on  tbe  mind  of  tbe  Irisb  peasantry  tbat  in  Stephens 
tbere  bad  at  last  been  found  an  insurgent  leader  of  adequate 
courage,  craft,  and  good  fortune. 

Steiobens  disappeared  for  a  moment  from  tbe  stage.  In 
tbe  meantime  disputes  and  dissensions  bad  arisen  among  tbe 
Fenians  in  America.  Tbe  schism  bad  gone  so  far  as  to  lead 
to  tbe  setting  up  of  two  separate  associations.  Tbere  were  of 
course  distracted  plans.  One  party  was  for  an  invasion  of 
Canada ;  another  pressed  for  operations  in  Ireland  itself. 
Tbe  Canadian  attempt  actually  was  made.  A  small  body  of 
Fenians,  a  sort  of  advance-guard,  crossed  the  Niagara  river  on 
the  night  of  May  31,  18G6,  occupied  Fort  Erie,  and  drove 
back  the  Canadian  volunteers  who  first  advanced  against 
them.  For  a  moment  a  gleam  of  success  shone  on  the 
attempt ;  but  tbe  United  States  enforced  tbe  neutrality  of 
their  frontier  lines  with  a  sudden  energy  and  strictness  wholly 
unexpected  by  tbe  Fenians.  They  prevented  any  further 
crossing  of  the  river,  and  arrested  several  of  the  leaders  on  the 
American  side.  Tbe  Canadian  authorities  hurried  up  rein- 
forcements ;  several  Fenians  were  taken  and  shot ;  others  re- 
crossed  the  river,  and  the  invasion  scheme  was  over. 

The  Fenians  then  resolved  to  do  something  on  tbe  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  One  venture  was  a  scheme  for  the 
capture  of  Chester  Castle.  The  plan  was  tbat  a  sufficient 
number  of  the  Fenians  in  England  should  converge  towards 
the  ancient  town  of  Chester,  should  suddenly  appear  tbere  on 
a  given  day  in  February  1867,  capture  the  castle,  seize  tbe 
arms  they  found  tbere,  cut  tbe  telegraph  wires,  make  for 
Holyhead,  but  a  short  distance  by  rail,  seize  on  some  vessels 
there,  and  then  steam  for  the  Irish  coast.  The  Government 
were  fuUy  informed  of  the  plot  in  advance ;  the  police  were 
actually  on  the  look-out  for  the  arrival  of  strangers  in  Chester, 
and  the  enterprise  melted  away.  In  March  1867  an  attempt 
at  a  general  rising  was  made  in  Ireland.  It  was  a  total 
failure ;  tbe  one  thing  on  which  the  country  had  to  be  con- 
gratulated was  tbat  it  failed  so  completely  and  so  quickly  aa 
to  cause  little  bloodshed.  Every  influence  combined  to  mini- 
mise the  waste  of  life.  The  snow  fell  tbat  spring  as  it  bad 
scarcely  ever  fallen  before  in  the  soft,  mild  climate  of  Ireland. 


3i6     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     CH.  xxil. 

Silently,  unceasingly  it  came  down  all  day  long  and  all  night 
long ;  it  covered  the  roads  and  the  fields  ;  it  made  the  gorges 
of  the  momitains  untenable,  and  the  gorges  of  the  mountains 
were  to  be  the  encampments  and  the  retreats  of  the  Fenian 
insurgents.  The  snow  fell  for  many  days  and  nights,  and 
when  it  ceased  falling  the  insurrectionary  movement  was  over. 
The  insurrection  was  literally  buried  in  that  unlooked-for 
snow.  There  were  some  attacks  on  police  barracks  in  various 
places — in  Cork,  in  Kerry,  in  Limerick,  in  Tipperary,  in 
Louth  ;  there  were  some  conflicts  with  the  police  ;  there  were 
some  shots  fired,  many  captures  made,  a  few  lives  lost ;  and 
then  for  the  time  at  least  all  w^as  over. 

There  was,  however,  much  feeling  in  England  as  w^ell  as 
in  Ireland  for  some  of  the  Fenian  leaders  who  now  began  to 
be  put  upon  their  trials.  They  bore  themselves  with  manli- 
ness and  dignity.  Some  of  them  had  been  brave  soldiers  in 
the  American  Civil  War,  and  were  entitled  to  wear  honourable 
marks  of  distinction.  Many  had  given  up  a  successful  career 
or  a  prosperous  calling  in  the  United  States  to  take  part  in 
wdiat  they  were  led  to  believe  would  be  the  great  national  up- 
rising of  the  Irish  people.  They  spoke  up  with  courage  in  the 
dock,  and  declared  their  perfect  readiness  to  die  for  what  they 
held  to  be  a  sacred  cause.  They  indulged  in  no  bravado  and 
uttered  no  word  of  repining.  One  of  the  leaders,  Colonel 
Burke,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in  the  army  of  the 
Southern  Confederation,  was  sentenced  to  death  in  May  1867. 
A  great  public  meeting  w^as  held  in  St.  James's  Hall,  London, 
to  adopt  a  memorial  praying  that  the  sentence  might  not  be 
carried  out.  Among  those  who  addressed  the  meeting  was 
Mr.  Mill.  It  was  almost  altogether  an  English  meeting. 
The  hall  was  crowded-  with  English  working  men.  The  Irish 
element  had  hardly  any  direct  representation  there.  Yet 
there  was  absolute  unanimity,  there  was  intense  enthusiasm, 
in  favour  of  the  mitigation  of  the  sentence  on  Colonel  Burke 
and  his  companions.  The  great  hall  rang  with  cheer  after 
cheer  as  Mr.  Mill,  in  a  voice  made  stronger  than  its  wont  by 
the  intensity  of  his  emotions,  pleaded  for  a  policy  of  mercy. 
The  voice  of  that  great  meeting  was  heard  in  the  ministerial 
councils,  and  the  sentence  of  death  was  not  inflicted. 

Not  many  months  after  this  event  the  world  was  aroused 
to  amazement  by  the  news  of  the  daring  rescue  of  Fenian 
prisoners  in  Manchester.  Two  Fenian  prisoners,  named  Kelly 
and  Deasy,  were  being  conveyed  in  the  prison  van  from  one 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD,  317 

of  the  police  courts  to  the  borough  gaol  to  await  further 
examination.  On  the  way  the  van  was  stopped  by  a  number 
of  armed  Fenians,  who  broke  it  open.  In  the  scuffle  a  police- 
man was  killed.  The  rescue  was  accomplished ;  the  pri3oners 
were  hurried  away,  and  were  never  after  seen  by  English 
officials.  The  principal  rescuers  were  captured  and  put  on 
their  trial  for  the  murder  of  the  policeman.  Five  were  found 
guilty  :  their  names  were  Allen,  Larkin,  O'Brien,  Condon  or 
Shore,  and  Maguire.  Allen  was  a  young  fellow — a  mere  lad 
under  twenty.  The  defence  was  that  the  prisoners  only  medi- 
tated a  rescue,  and  that  the  death  of  the  policeman  was  but  an 
accident.  All  the  five  were  sentenced  to  death.  Then  followed 
an  almost  unprecedented  occurrence.  After  the  trial  it  was 
proved  that  one  of  the  five,  Maguire,  never  was  near  the  spot 
on  the  day  of  the  rescue ;  that  he  was  a  loyal  private  in  the 
Marines,  and  no  Fenian  ;  that  he  never  knew  anything  about 
the  plot  or  heard  of  it  until  he  was  arrested.  He  received  a 
pardon  at  once,  that  being  the  only  way  in  which  he  could  be 
extricated  from  the  effect  of  the  mistaken  verdict. 

One  other  of  the  five  prisoners  who  were  convicted  to- 
gether escaped  the  death-sentence.  This  was  Condon  or 
Shore,  an  American  by  citizenship  if  not  by  birth.  He  had 
undoubtedly  been  concerned  in  the  attempt  at  rescue  ;  but  for 
some  reason  a  distinction  was  made  between  him  and  the 
others.  This  act  of  mercy,  in  itself  highly  commendable, 
added  to  the  bad  effect  produced  in  Ireland  by  the  execution 
of  the  other  three  men  ;  for  it  gave  rise  to  the  belief  that 
Shore  had  been  spared  only  because  the  protection  of  the 
American  Government  might  have  been  invoked  on  his  behalf. 
Many  strenuous  attempts  were  made  to  procure  a  commutation 
of  the  sentence  in  the  cases  of  the  other  prisoners.  Mr. 
Bright  exerted  himself  with  characteristic  energy  and  human- 
ity. Mr.  Swinburne,  the  poet,  made  an  appeal  to  the  people 
of  England  in  lines  of  great  power  and  beauty  on  behalf  of  a 
policy  of  mercy  to  the  prisoners.  Lord  Derby,  who  had  then 
come  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  Government,  refused  to  listen  to 
any  appeal.  The  remaining  three,  Allen,  Larkin,  and  O'Brien, 
were  executed. 

The  excitement  caused  by  the  attempt  they  had  made  and 
the  penalty  they  paid  had  hardly  died  away  when  a  crime  of  a 
peculiarly  atrocious  nature  was  committed  in  the  name  of 
Fenianism.  On  December  13  an  attempt  was  made  to  blow 
up  the  House  of  Detention  at  Clerkenwell.     Two  Feniaa 


3i8     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxii. 

prisoners  were  in  the  Clerkenwell  House  of  Detention,  and 
some  sympathisers  outside  had  attempted  to  rescue  them  by 
placing  a  barrel  of  gunpowder  close  to  the  wall  of  the  prison, 
and  exploding  the  powder  by  means  of  a  match  and  a  fuse. 
About  sixty  yards  of  the  prison  wall  were  blown  in,  and 
numbers  of  small  houses  in  the  neighbourhood  were  shattered 
to  pieces.  Six  persons  were  killed  on  the  spot ;  about  six 
more  died  from  the  effects  of  the  injuries  they  received  ;  some 
hundred  and' twenty  persons  were  wounded.  The  clumsiness 
of  the  crime  was  only  surpassed  by  its  atrocity.  Had  the 
prisoners  on  whose  behalf  the  attempt  was  made  been  near 
the  wall  at  the  time,  they  must  have  shared  the  fate  of  those 
who  were  victimised  outside.  Had  they  even  been  taking 
exercise  in  the  yard,  they  would,  in  all  probability,  have  been 
killed.  They  would  have  been  taking  exercise  at  the  time 
had  it  not  been  for  a  warning  the  authorities  at  Scotland 
Yard  received  two  days  before,  to  the  efiect  that  an  attempt 
at  rescue  was  to  be  made  by  means  of  gunpowder  and  the 
blowing  in  of  the  wall.  In  consequence  of  this  warning  the 
governor  of  the  prison  had  the  prisoners  confined  to  their  cells 
that  day ;  and  thus,  in  all  probability,  they  owed  their  lives 
to  the  disclosure  of  the  secret  plan  which  their  officious  and 
ill-omened  admirers  had  in  preparation  for  their  rescue.  It  is 
difficult  to  understand  why  the  prison  authorities  and  the 
police,  thus  forewarned,  did  not  keep  a  sufficient  watch  upon 
the  line  of  prison  wall  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  such 
scheme  being  put  into  execution.  Five  men  and  a  woman 
were  put  on  trial  for  the  crime.  The  proceedings  against 
the  woman  and  one  of  the  men  were  withdrawn,  three  oiher 
prisoners  were  acquitted  after  a  long  trial ;  one  man  was  con- 
victed and  executed. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  out  the  steps  of  the  Fenian 
movement  any  further.  There  were  many  isolated  attempts  ; 
there  were  many  arrests,  trials,  imprisonments,  banishments. 
The  phenomena  of  the  Fenian  movement  did  not  fail  to 
impress  some  statesmanlike  minds  in  England.  There  were 
some  public  men  who  saw  that  the  time  had  come  when  mere 
repression  must  no  longer  be  relied  upon  as  a  cure  for  Irish 
discontent.  While  many  public  instructors  lost  themselves 
in  vain  shriekings  over  the  wickedness  of  Fenianism  and  the 
incurable  perversity  of  the  Irish  people,  one  statesman  was 
already  convinced  that  the  very  shock  of  the  Fenian  agitation 
would  arouse  public  attention  to  the  recognition  of  substantial 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  319 

grievance,  and  to  the  admission  that  the  business  of  states- 
manship was  to  seek  out  the  remedy  and  provide  redress. 

EngHsh  society  was  much  distressed  and  disturbed  about 
the  same  time  by  the  stories  of  outrages  more  cruel,  and  of  a 
conspiracy  more  odious  and  alarming  in  its  purpose  than  any 
that  could  be  ascribed  to  the  Fenian  movement.  It  began  to 
be  common  talk  that  among  the  trades-associations  there  was 
systematic  terrorising  of  the  worst  kind.  Ordinary  intimida- 
tion had  long  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  means  by  which 
some  of  the  trades-unions  kept  their  principles  in  force.  Now, 
however,  it  was  common  report  that  secret  assassination  was 
in  many  cases  the  doom  of  those  who  brought  on  themselves 
the  wrath  of  the  Trades-unions.  For  many  years  the  great 
town  of  Sheffield  had  had  a  special  notoriety  in  consequence 
of  the  outrages  of  the  kind  that  were  believed  to  be  committed 
"there.  When  a  workman  had  made  himself  obnoxious  to  the 
leaders  of  some  local  trades-union,  it  occasionally  happened 
that  some  sudden  and  signal  misfortune  befell  him.  Perhaps 
his  house  was  set  on  fire  ;  perhaps  a  canister  of  gunpowder 
was  exploded  under  his  windows,  or  some  rudely  constructed 
infernal  machine  was  flung  into  his  bed-room  at  midnight. 
The  man  himself,  supposing  him  to  have  escaped  with  his  life, 
felt  convinced  that  in  the  attempt  to  destroy  him  he  saw  the 
hand  of  the  union  ;  his  neighbours  were  of  his  opinion  ;  but  it 
sometimes  happened,  nevertheless,  that  there  was  no  possi- 
bility of  bringing  home  the  charge  upon  evidence  that  could 
satisfy  a  criminal  court.  The  comparative  impunity  which 
such  crimes  were  enabled  to  secure  made  the  perpetrators  of 
them  feel  more  and  more  safe  in  their  enterprises  ;  and  the 
result  was  that  outrages  began  to  increase  in  atrocity,  boldness, 
and  numbers.  The  employers  offered  large  rewards  for  the 
discovery  of  the  offenders ;  the  Government  did  the  same ; 
but  not  much  came  of  the  offers.  The  employers  charged  the 
local  trades-unions  with  being  the  authors  of  all  the  crimes  ; 
the  officials  of  the  unions  distinctly  and  indignantly  denied 
the  charge.  In  some  instances  they  did  more.  They  offered 
on  their  own  account  a  reward  for  the  detection  of  the  crimi- 
nals, in  order  that  their  own  innocence  might  thereby  be 
established  once  for  all  in  the  face  of  day.  At  a  public  meet- 
ing held  in  Sheffield  to  express  public  opinion  on  the  subject, 
the  secretary  of  one  of  the  local  miions,  a  man  named  Broad- 
head,  spoke  out  with  indignant  and  vehement  eloquence  in 
denunciation  of  the  crimes,  and  in  protest  agamst  the  insinua* 


320     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxil. 

tion  that  they  were  sanctioned  by  the  authority  or  done  with 
the  connivance  of  the  trades-organisation. 

Nevertheless  the  Government  resolved  to  undertake  a  full 
investigation  into  the  whole  condition  of  the  Trades-unions. 
A  Commission  was  appointed,  and  a  bill  passed  through  Parlia- 
ment enabling  it  to  take  evidence  upon  oath.  The  Commis- 
sioners sent  down  to  Sheffield  three  examiners  to  make  enquiry 
as  to  the  outrages.  The  examiners  had  authority  to  offer  pro- 
tection to  anyone,  even  though  himself  engaged  in  the  commis- 
sion of  the  outrages,  who  should  give  information  which  might 
lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  conspiracy.  This  offer  had  its  full 
effect.  The  Government  were  now  so  evidently  determined  to 
get  at  the  root  of  all  the  evil,  that  many  of  those  actively  engaged 
in  the  commission  of  the  crimes  took  fright  and  believed  they 
had  best  consult  for  their  personal  safety.  Accordingly  the 
Commission  got  as  much  evidence  as  could  be  desired,  and  it 
was  soon  put  beyond  dispute  that  more  than  one  association  had 
systematically  employed  the  most  atrocious  means  to  punish 
offenders  against  their  self-made  laws  and  to  deter  men  from 
venturing  to  act  in  opposition  to  them.  The  saw-grinders* 
union  in  Sheffield  had  been  particularly  active  in  such  work, 
and  the  man  named  William  Broadhead,  who  had  so  indig- 
nantly protested  the  innocence  of  his  union,  was  the  secretary 
of  that  organisation.  Broadhead  was  proved  to  have  ordered, 
arranged,  and  paid  for  the  murder  of  at  least  one  offender 
against  his  authority,  and  to  have  set  on  foot  in  the  same  way 
various  deeds  scarcely  if  at  all  less  criminal.  The  crimes 
were  paid  for  out  of  the  funds  of  the  union.  There  were 
gradations  of  outrage,  ascending  from  what  might  be  called 
mere  personal  annoyance  up  to  the  serious  destruction  of 
property,  then  to  personal  injury,  to  mutilation,  and  to  death. 
Broadhead  himself  came  before  the  examiners  and  acknow- 
ledged the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  direction  of  such  crimes. 
He  explained  how  he  had  devised  them,  organised  them, 
selected  the  agents  by  whom  they  were  to  be  committed,  and 
paid  for  them  out  of  the  funds  of  the  union.  The  men  whom 
he  selected  had  sometimes  no  personal  resentment  against  the 
victims  they  were  bidden  to  mutilate  or  destroy.  They  were 
ordered  and  paid  to  punish  men  whom  Broadhead  considered 
to  be  offenders  against  the  authority  and  the  interests  of  the 
union,  and  they  did  the  work  obediently.  In  Manchester  a 
state  of  things  was  found  to  exist  only  less  hideous  than  that 
which  prevailed  ia  Sheffield.     Other  towns  were  found  to  be 


CH.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD,  321 

not  very  far  distant  from   Sheffield  and  Manchester  in  the 
audacity  and  ingenuity  of  their  trade  outrages. 

The  great  majority,  however,  of  the  Trades-unions  appeared 
after  the  most  searching  mvestigation  to  be  absolutely  free 
from  any  complicity  in  the  crimes,  or  any  sanction  of  them. 
Men  of  sense  began  to  ask  whether  society  had  not  itself  to 
blame  in  some  measure  even  for  the  crimes  of  the  Trades- 
unions.     The  law  had  always  dealt  mifairly  and  harshly  with 
the  trade-associations.     Public  opinion  had  for  a  long  time 
regarded  them  as  absolutely  lawless.     There  was  a  time  when 
their  very  existence  would  have  been  an  infraction  of  the  law. 
For  centuries  our  legislation  had  acted  on  the  principle  that 
the  worldng-man  was  a  serf  of  society,  bound  to  work  for  the 
sake  of  the  employer  and  on  the  employer's  terms.     Even 
down  to  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  writing,  there  was 
still  a  marked  and  severe  distinction  drawn  between  master 
and  servant,  master  and  workman,  in  our  legislation.    In  cases 
of  breach  of  contract  the  remedy  against  the  employer  was 
entirely  civil ;  against  the  employed,  criminal.     A  workman 
might  even  be  arrested  on  a  warrant  for  alleged  breach  of 
contract  and  taken  to  prison  before  the  case  had  been  tried. 
The   laws  were   particularly  stringent   in   their  declarations 
against  all  manner   of  combination  among  workmen.     Any 
combined  effort  to  raise  wages  would  have  been  treated  aa 
conspiracy  of  a  specially  odious  and  dangerous  order.     Down 
to  1825  a  mere  combination  of  workmen  for  their  own  protec- 
tion was  unlawful ;  but  long  after  1825  the  law  continued  to 
deal  very  harshly  with  what  was   called  conspiracy  among 
working-men  for  trade  purposes.     Not  many  years  ago  it  was 
held  that  although  a  strike  could  not  itself  be  pronounced 
illegal,  yet  a  combination  of  workmen  to  bring  about  a  strike 
was  a  conspiracy,  and  was  to  be  properly  punished  by  law. 
In  1867,  the  very  year  when  the  Commission  we  have  described 
held  its  inquiries  at  Sheffield  and  Manchester,  a  decision  given 
by  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  affirmed  that  a  friendly  society, 
which  was  also  a  trades-union,  had  no  right  to  the  protection 
of  the  law  in  enforcing  a  claim  for  a  debt.     It  was  laid  down 
that  because  the  rules  of  the  society  appeared  to  be  such  as 
would  operate  in  restraint  of  trade,  therefore  the  society  wa3 
not  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  civil  law  in  any  ordinary 
matter  of  account.     Trades-unions  were  not  allowed  to  defend 
themselves    against   plunder   by  a  dishonest   member.     This 
extraordinary  principle  was  in  force  for  several  years  after  the 

14- 


322      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxii. 

time  at  which  we  have  now  arrived  in  this  history.  One  result 
of  the  investigations  into  the  outrages  in  Sheffield  and  in 
Manchester  was  that  public  attention  was  drawn  directly  to  the 
whole  subject ;  the  searching  light  of  full  free  discussion  was 
turned  on  to  it,  and  after  a  while  everyone  began  to  see  that 
the  wanton  injustice  of  the  law  and  of  society  in  dealing  with 
the  associations  of  worldng-men  was  responsible  for  many  of 
the  errors  and  even  of  the  crimes  into  which  some  of  the  worst 
of  these  associations  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  seduced. 

It  was  not,  however,  the  law  alone  which  had  set  itself  for 
centuries  against  the  working-man.  Public  opinion  and  legis- 
lation were  in  complete  agreement  as  to  the  rights  of  Trades- 
unions.  For  many  years  the  whole  body  of  English  public 
opinion  outside  the  working-class  itself  was  entirely  against 
the  principle  of  the  unions.  It  was  an  axiom  among  all  the 
employing  and  capitalist  classes  that  trades-organisations  were 
as  much  to  be  condemned  in  point  of  morality  as  they  were 
absurd  in  the  sight  of  political  economy.  All  the  leading 
newspapers  were  constantly  writing  against  the  Trades-unions 
at  one  time  ;  not  writing  merely  as  a  Liberal  paper  writes 
against  some  Tory  measure,  but  as  men  condemn  a  monstrous 
heresy.  Public  opinion  was  equally  well  satisfied  about  strikes. 
Parliament,  the  pulpit,  the  press,  the  stage,  philosophy,  fiction, 
all  were  for  a  long  time  in  combination  to  give  forth  one  pro- 
nouncement on  the  subject.  A  strike  was  something  always 
wicked  and  foolish  ;  abstractly  wicked ;  foolish  to  the  funda- 
mental depths  of  its  theory.  But  the  working-man  had  often 
no  way  of  asserting  his  claims  effectively  except  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  a  strike.  A  court  of  law  could  do  nothing  for 
him.  If  he  thought  his  wages  ought  to  be  raised,  or  ought 
not  to  be  lowered,  a  court  of  law  could  not  assist  him.  Once 
it  would  have  compelled  him  to  take  what  was  offered,  and 
work  for  it  or  go  to  prison.  Now,  in  better  times,  it  would 
offer  him  no  protection  against  the  most  arbitrary  conduct  on 
the  part  of  an  employer. 

In  spite  of  law,  in  spite  of  public  opinion,  the  trades- 
unions  went  on  and  prospered.  Some  of  them  grew  to  be 
great  organisations,  disposing  of  vast  funds.  Several  fought 
out  against  employers  long  battles  that  were  ahnost  like  a 
social  civil  war.  Sometimes  they  were  defeated  ;  sometimes 
they  were  victorious  ;  sometimes  they  got  at  least  so  far  that 
each  side  could  claim  the  victory,  and  wrangle  once  more  his- 
torically over  the  point.    Many  individual  societies  were  badly 


CH.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  323 

managed  and  went  to  pieces.  Some  were  made  tlie  victima 
of  swindlers,  just  like  other  institutions  among  other  classes. 
Some  were  brought  into  difficulties  simply  because  of  the 
childlike  ignorance  of  the  most  elementary  principles  of  poli- 
tical economy  with  which  they  were  conducted.  Still  the 
Trades-miion,  taken  as  a  whole,  became  stronger  and  stronger 
every  day.  It  became  part  of  the  social  life  of  the  w^orking- 
classes.  At  last  it  began  to  find  public  opinion  giving  way 
before  it.  Some  eminent  men,  of  whom  Mr.  "Mill  was  the 
greatest,  had  long  been  endeavouring  to  get  the  world  to 
recognise  the  fact  that  a  strike  is  not  a  thing  which  can  be 
called  good  or  bad  until  we  know  its  object  and  its  history  ; 
that  the  men  who  strike  may  be  sometimes  right,  and  that 
they  may  have  sometimes  been  successful.  But  as  usual  in 
this  country,  and  as  another  evidence  doubtless  of  what  is 
commonly  called  the  practical  character  of  Englishmen,  the 
right  of  the  trades-unions  to  existence  and  to  social  recogni- 
tion was  chiefly  impressed  upon  the  public  mind  by  the 
strength  of  the  organisation  itself.  Many  men  came  at  once 
to  the  frankly  admitted  conclusion  that  there  must  be  some 
principles,  economic  as  well  as  others,  to  justify  the  existence 
and  the  growth  of  so  remarkable  an  institution.  The  Sheffield 
outrages,  even  while  they  horrified  everyone,  yet  made  most 
persons  begin  to  feel  that  the  time  had  come  when  there  must 
not  be  left  in  the  mouth  of  the  worst  and  most  worthless 
member  of  a  trades-union  any  excuse*  for  saying  any  longer 
that  the  law  was  unjust  to  him  and  to  his  class.  A  course  of 
legislation  was  then  begun  which  was  not  made  complete  for 
several  years  after.  We  may,  however,  anticipate  here  the 
measures  which  passed  in  1875,  and  show  how  at  length  the 
fair  claims  of  the  unions  were  recognised.  The  masters  and 
workmen  were  placed  on  absolute  equality  as  regarded  the 
matter  of  contract.  They  had  been  thus  equal  for  many  years 
in  other  countries  ;  in  France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  for 
example.  A  breach  of  contract  resulting  in  damages  was  to 
be  treated  on  either  side  as  giving  rise  to  a  civil  and  not  a 
criminal  remedy.  There  was  to  be  no  imprisonment,  except 
as  it  is  ordered  in  other  cases,  by  a  county  court  judge  ;  that 
is,  a  man  may  be  committed  to  prison  who  has  been  ordered 
to  pay  a  certain  sum,  and  out  of  contumacy  will  not  pay  it, 
although  payment  is  shown  to  be  w^ithin  his  power.  No  com- 
bination of  perscns  is  i^o  be  deemed  criminal  if  the  act  pro- 
posed to  be  donp  would  not  be  crimmul  when  done  by  one 


324     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxii. 

person.  Several  breaches  of  contract  were,  however,  very 
properly  made  the  subject  of  special  legislation.  If,  for 
example,  a  man  '  wilfully  and  maliciously  '  broke  his  contract 
of  service  to  a  gas  or  water  company,  knowing  that  by  doing 
so  he  might  cause  great  public  injury,  he  might  be  imprisoned. 
It  was  made  strictly  unlawful  and  punishable  by  imprison- 
ment to  hide  or  injure  the  tools  of  workmen  in  order  to  pre- 
vent them  from  doing  their  work  ;  or  to  '  beset '  workmen  in 
order  to  prevent  them  from  getting  to  their  place  of  business, 
or  to  intimidate  them  into  keeping  away  from  it.  In  principle 
this  legislation  accomplished  all  that  any  reasonable  advocate 
of  the  claims  of  the  trades-unions  could  have  demanded.  It 
put  the  masters  and  workmen  on  an  equality.  It  recognised 
the  right  of  combination  for  every  purpose  which  is  not  itself 
actually  contrary  to  law.  It  settled  the  fact  that  the  right 
of  a  combination  is  just  the  same  as  the  right  of  an  indivi- 
dual. 

The  civil  laws  which  dealt  so  harshly  for  a  long  time  with 
Trades-unionism  dealt  unfairly  too  with  the  friendly  societies, 
with  that  strong  and  sudden  growth  of  our  modern  days—  Co- 
operation. If  working-men  can  combine  effectively  and  in 
large  numbers  for  a  benefit  society  or  for  a  strike,  why  should 
they  not  also  co-operate  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  each 
other  with  good  and  cheap  food  and  clothing,  and  dividing 
among  themselves  the  profits  which  would  otherwise  be  dis- 
tributed among  various  manufacturers  and  shopkeepers  ? 
This  is  a  question  which  had  often  been  put  before,  without 
any  very  decided  practical  result  coming  of  it ;  but  in  1844, 
or  thereabouts,  it  was  put  and  tested  in  a  highly  practical 
manner  in  the  North  of  England.  The  association  called  '  The 
Equitable  Pioneers'  Co-operative  Store '  was  founded  in 
Rochdale  by  a  few  poor  flannel-weavers.  The  times  were 
bad ;  there  had  been  a  failure  of  a  savings-bank,  involving 
heavy  loss  to  many  classes ;  and  these  men  cast  about  in 
their  minds  for  some  way  of  making  their  little  earnings  go 
far.  These  Kochdale  weavers  were  thoughtful  men.  Most  of 
them  were,  or  rather  had  been,  followers  of  Eobert  Owen,  a 
dreamy  philanthropist  and  socialist,  who  had  written  books 
advocating  a  modified  form  of  community  of  property,  and 
who  had  tried  the  experiment  of  founding  a  communistic 
colony  in  America,  which  was  entirely  unsuccessful, 
and  whose  doctrines  were  followed  by  a  large  number 
of  people,  who  called  themselves  Owenitcs,  after  him.     One 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  325 

decidedly  good  teaching  which  they  had  from  Kobert  Owen 
was  a  dishke  to  the  credit  system.     They  saw  that  the  shop- 
keeper who  gave  his  goods  at  long  credit  must  necessarily 
have  to  charge  a  much  higher  price  than  the  actual  value  of 
the  goods,  and  even  of  a  reasonable  profit,  in  order  to  make 
up  for  his  having  to  live  out  of  his  money,  and  to  secure  him-  ■ 
self  against  bad  debts.     They  also  saw  that  the  credit  system 
leads  to  almost  incessant  litigation ;  and  besides  that  litiga- 
tion means  the  waste  of  time  and  money ;  some  of  them,  it 
appears,  had  a  conscientious  objection  to  the  taking  of  an 
oath.     It  occurred  to  these  Eochdale  weavers,  therefore,  that 
if  they  could  get  together  a  little  capital  they  might  start  a 
shop  or  store  of  their  own,  and  thus  be  able  to  supply  them- 
selves with  better  goods,  and  at  cheaper  rates,  than  by  dealing 
with  the  ordinary  tradesmen.     Twenty-eight  of  them  began 
by  subscribing  twopence  a  week  each.     The  number  of  sub- 
scribers was   afterwards   increased  to  forty,  and  the  weekly 
subscription  to  threepence.     When  they  had  got  28/.  they 
thought  they  had  capital  enough  to  begin   their  enterprise 
with.     They  took  a  small  shop  in  a  little  back  street,  called 
Toad  Lane,     After  the  shop  had  been  fitted  up,  the  equitable 
pioneers  had  only  14Z.  left  to  stock  it ;  and  the  concern  looked 
so  small  and  shabby  that  the  hearts  of  some  of  the  pioneers 
might   have  well-nigh   smik  within  them.     A  neighbouring 
shopkeeper,  feeling  utter  contempt  for  the  enterprise,  declared 
that  he  could  remove  the  whole  stock-in-trade  in  a  wheel- 
barrow.     The   wheelbarrow-load   of    goods    soon,   however, 
became  too  heavy  to  be  carried  away  in  the  hold  of  a  great 
steamer.     The  pioneers  began  by  supplying  each  other  with 
groceries ;  they  went  on  to  butchers'  meat,  and  then  to  all 
sorts  of  clothing.     From  supplying  goods  they  progressed  on 
to  the  manufacturing  of  goods  ;  they  had  a  corn  mill  and  a 
cotton  mill,  and  they  became  to  a  certain  extent  a  land  and  a 
building  society.     They  set  aside  part  of  their  profits  for  a 
library  and  reading-room,  and  they  founded  a  co-operative 
Turkish  bath.     Their  capital  of  28Z.  swelled  in  sixteen  years 
to  over  120,000Z.     Cash  payments  and  the  division  of  profits 
were  the  main  sources  of  this  remarkable  prosperity.     Not 
merely  did  the  shareholders  share  in  the  profits,  but  all  the 
buyers  received  an  equitable  percentage  on  the  price  of  every 
article  they  bought.     Each  purchaser,  on  paying  for  what  he 
had  bought,  received  a  ticket  which  entitled  him  to  that  per- 
centage at  each  division  of  profit,  and  thus  many  a  poor  man 


326     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP   GUR   OWN  TIMES,     c.n.  xxii. 

found  at  the  quarterly  division  that  he  had  several  shillings, 
perhaps  a  pound,  coming  to  him,  which  seemed  at  first  to 
have  dropped  out  of  the  clouds,  so  little  direct  claim  did  he 
appear  to  have  on  it.  He  had  not  paid  more  for  his  goods 
rhan  he  would  have  had  to  pay  at  the  cheapest  shop  ;  he  had 
got  them  of  the  best  quality  the  price  could  buy ;  and  at  the 
end  of  each  period  he  found  that  he  had  a  sum  of  money 
standing  to  his  credit,  which  he  could  either  take  away  or 
leave  to  accumulate  at  the  store. 

Many  other  institutions  were  soon  following  the  example  ol 
the  Kochdale  pioneers.  Long  before  their  capital  had  swelled 
to  the  amount  we  have  mentioned,  the  North  of  England  was 
studded  with  co-operative  associations  of  one  kind  or  another.'. 
Many  of  them  proved  sad  failures.  Some  started  on  chimerical 
principles ;  some  were  stupidly,  some  selfishly  mismanaged. 
There  came  seasons  of  heavy  strain  on  labour  and  trade,  when 
the  resources  of  many  were  taxed  to  their  uttermost,  and  when 
some  even  of  the  best  seemed  for  a  moment  likely  to  go 
under.  The  co-operative  associations  sufi'ered  in  fact  the 
trials  and  vicissitudes  that  must  be  met  by  all  institutions  of 
men.  But  the  one  result  is  clear  and  palpable  ;  they  have  as 
a  whole  been  a  most  remarkable  success.  Of  late  years  the 
principle  has  been  taken  up  by  classes  who  would  have 
appeared  at  one  time  to  have  little  in  common  with  the  poor 
flannel- weavers  of  Kochdale.  The  civil  servants  of  the  Crown 
first  adopted  the  idea  ;  and  now  in  some  of  the  most  fashion- 
able quarters  of  London  the  carriages  of  some  of  their  most 
fashionable  residents  are  seen  at  the  crowded  doors  of  the  co- 
operative store.  It  may  safely  be  predicted  that  posterity  will 
not  let  the  co-operative  principle  die.  It  has  taken  firm  hold 
of  our  modern  society.  It  seems  certainly  destined  to  develop 
rather  than  fade  ;  to  absorb  rather  than  be  absorbed.  The 
law  was  much  against  the  principle  in  the  beginning.  Before 
1852  all  co-operative  associations  had  to  come  under  the 
Friendly  Societies  Act,  which  prohibited  their  dealing  with 
any  but  their  own  members.  An  Act  obtained  in  1852 
allowed  them  to  sell  to  persons  not  members  of  their  body. 
For  many  years  they  were  not  permitted  to  hold  more  than 
an  acre  of  land.  More  lately  this  absurd  restriction  was 
abolished,  and  they  were  allowed  to  trade  in  land,  to  hold 
land  to  any  extent,  and  to  act  as  building  societies.  The 
friendly  societies,  which  were  in  their  origin  merely  working- 
men's  clubs,  have  been  the  subject  of  legislation  since  the 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  327 

later  years  of  the  last  century.  It  may  be  doubted  whether, 
even  up  to  this  day,  that  legislation  has  not  done  them  more 
harm  than  good.  The  law  neither  takes  them  fairly  under  its 
protection  and  control,  nor  leaves  them  to  do  the  best  they 
can  for  themselves  uncontrolled  and  on  their  own  responsi- 
bility. At  one  time  the  sort  of  left-handed  recognition  w4iich 
the  law  gave  them  had  a  direct  tendency  to  do  harm.  An 
officer  was  appointed  by  the  Government,  who  might  inspect 
the  manner  in  which  the  accounts  of  the  societies  were  kept, 
and  certify  that  they  were  in  conformity  with  the  law ;  but 
he  had  no  authority  to  look  actually  into  the  affairs  of  a 
society.  The  mere,  fact,  however,  that  there  was  any  manner 
of  Government  certificate  proved  sadly  misleading  to  thou- 
sands of  persons.  Some  actually  regarded  the  certificate  as  a 
guarantee  given  by  the  Government  that  their  money  was 
safe ;  a  guarantee  which  bound  the  State  to  make  good  any 
loss  to  the  depositors.  Others,  who  were  not  quite  so  credu- 
lous, were  convinced  at  least  that  the  certificate  testified  on 
Government  authority  that  the  funds  of  the  society  were 
safe,  and  that  its  accounts  and  its  business  were  managed  on 
principles  of  strict  economical  soundness.  The  Government 
official  certified  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  certificate  given  to 
the  friendly  societies  merely  certified  that  on  the  face  of 
things  the  accounts  seemed  all  right.  Many  of  the  societies 
were  sadly  mismanaged ;  in  certain  of  them  there  was  the 
grossest  malversation  of  funds  ;  in  some  towns  mach  distress 
was  caused  among  the  depositors  in  consequence.  The 
societies  had  to  pass,  in  fact,  through  a  stage  of  confusion, 
ignorance,  and  experiment,  and  it  is  perhaps  only  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  there  was  not  greater  mismanagement,  greater 
blundering,  and  more  lamentable  failure. 

In  the  summer  of  1867  England  received  with  strange 
welcome  a  strange  visitor.  It  was  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  who 
came  to  visit  England — the  Sultan  Abdul- Aziz,  whose  career 
was  to  end  ten  years  after  in  dethronement  and  suicide. 
Abdul-Aziz  was  the  first  Sultan  who  ever  set  his  foot  on 
English  soil.  He  was  welcomed  with  a  show  of  enthusiasm 
which  made  cool  observers  wonder  and  shrug  their  shoulders. 
There  was  an  insurrection  going  on  in  the  Greek  island  of 
Crete,  which  was  under  Turkish  rule,  and  the  Sultan's 
generals  were  doing  cruel  work  among  the  unfortunate  rebels 
of  that  Greek  race  with  which  the  people  of  England  had  so 
long  and  so  loudly  professed  the  deepest  sympathy.     Yet  the 


328     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxii. 

Sultan  was  received  by  Englishmen  with  what  must  have 
seemed  to  him  a  genuine  outburst  of  national  enthusiasm. 
As  a  matter  of  course  he  received  the  usual  court  entertain- 
ments ;  but  he  was  also  entertained  gorgeously  by  the  Lord 
Mayor  and  Corporation  of  London ;  he  went  in  state  to 
the  Opera  and  the  Crystal  Palace ;  he  saw  a  review  of  the 
fleet,  in  company  with  the  Queen,  at  Spithead ;  he  was  run 
after  and  shouted  for  by  vast  crowds  wherever  he  showed  his 
dark  and  melancholy  face,  on  which  even  then  the  sullen 
shadow  of  the  future  might  seem  to  have  been  cast.  His 
presence  threw  completely  into  the  background  that  of  his 
nominal  vassal  the  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  who  might  otherwise 
have  been  a  very  sufficient  lion  in  himself.  Abdul-Aziz 
doubtless  believed  in  the  genuineness  of  the  reception,  and 
thought  it  denoted  a  real  and  lasting  sympathy  with  him  and 
his  State.  He  did  not  know  how  easily  crowds  are  gathered 
and  the  fire  of  popular  enthusiasm  is  lighted  in  London.  The 
Shah  of  Persia  was  to  experience  the  same  sort  of  reception 
not  long  after ;  Garibaldi  had  enjoyed  it  not  long  before ; 
Kossuth  had  had  it  in  his  time.  Some  of  the  newspapers 
politely  professed  to  believe  that  the  visit  would  be  productive 
of  wonderful  results  to  Turkey.  The  Sultan,  it  was  suggested, 
would  surely  return  to  Constantinople  with  his  head  full  of 
new  ideas  gathered  up  in  the  West.  He  would  go  back  much 
impressed  by  the  evidences  of  the  blessings  of  our  constitu- 
tional government,  and  the  progressive  nature  of  our  civic 
institutions.  He  would  read  a  lesson  in  the  glass  and  iron 
of  the  Crystal  Palace,  the  solid  splendours  of  the  Guildhall. 
He  would  learn  something  from  the  directors  of  the  railway 
companies,  and  something  from  the  Lord  Mayor.  The  Cattle 
Show  at  the  Agricultural  Hall  could  not  be  lost  on  his  obser- 
vant eyes.  The  result  would  be  a  new  era  for  Turkey — 
another  new  era :  the  real  new  era  this  time.  The  poor 
Sultan's  head  must  have  been  sadly  bemused  by  all  the  various 
sights  he  was  forced  to  see.  He  left  England  just  before  the 
public  had  had  time  to  get  tired  of  him  ;  and  the  new  era  did 
not  appear  to  be  any  nearer  for  Turkey  after  his  return  home. 
Mr.  Disraeli  astonished  and  amused  the  public  towards 
the  close  of  1867  by  a  declaration  he  made  at  a  dmner  which 
was  given  in  his  honour  at  Edinburgh.  The  company  were 
surprised  to  learn  that  he  had  for  many  years  been  a  thorough 
reformer  and  an  advocate  of  popular  suffrage,  and  that  he  had 
only  kept  his  convictions  to  himself  because  it  was  necessary 


CI  J.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD,  329 

to  instil  them  gently  into  the  minds  of  his  political  colleagues. 
*  I  had,'  he  said,  *  to  prepare  the  mind  of  the  comitry,  and  to 
educate — if  it  be  not  arrogant  to  use  such  a  phrase — to  educate 
our  party.  It  is  a  large  party,  and  requires  its  attention  to 
be  called  to  questions  of  this  kind  with  some  pressure.  I  had 
to  prepare  the  mind  of  Parliament  and  the  country  on  this 
question  of  Eeform.'  All  the  time,  therefore,  that  Mr. 
Disraeli  was  fighting  against  Eeform  Bills,  he  was  really 
trying  to  lead  his  party  towards  the  principles  of  populai 
reform.  Some  members  of  the  party  which  Mr.  Disraeli  pro- 
fessed to  have  cleverly  educated  were  a  little  scandalised  and 
even  shocked  at  the  frank  composure  of  his  confession  ;  some 
were  offended ;  it  seemed  to  them  that  their  ingenious  in- 
structor had  made  fools  of  them.  But  the  general  public,  as 
usual,  persisted  in  refusing  to  take  Mr.  Disraeli  seriously,  or 
to  fasten  on  him  any  moral  responsibility  for  anything  he 
might  say  or  do.  That  was  his  way  ;  if  he  were  anything  but 
that,  he  would  not  be  Mr.  Disraeli ;  he  would  not  be  leader 
of  the  House  of  Commons ;  he  would  not  be  Prime  Minister 
of  England. 

For  to  that  it  soon  came  ;  came  at  last.  Only  the  oppor- 
tmiity  was  lately  needed  to  make  him  Prime  Minister ;  and 
that  opportunity  came  early  in  1868.  Lord  Derby's  health 
had  for  some  time  been  so  weakly  that  he  was  anxious  to  get 
rid  of  the  trouble  of  office  as  soon  as  possible.  In  February 
1868  he  became  so  ill  that  his  condition  excited  the  gravest 
anxiety.  He  rallied  indeed  and  grew  much  better ;  but  he 
took  the  warning  and  determined  on  retiring  from  office.  He 
tendered  his  resignation,  and  it  was  accepted  by  the  Queen. 
It  fell  to  the  lot  of  his  son.  Lord  Stanley,  to  make  the 
amiouncement  in  the  House  of  Commons.  There  was  a 
general  regret  felt  for  the  retirement  of  Lord  Derby  from  a 
leading  place  in  politics  ;  but  as  soon  as  it  appeared  that  his 
physical  condition  was  not  actually  hopeless,  men's  minds 
turned  at  once  from  him  to  his  successor.  No  one  could  now 
doubt  that  Mr.  Disraeli's  time  had  come.  The  patient  career, 
the  thirty  years'  war  against  difficulties,  were  to  have  the 
long-desired  reward.  The  Queen  sent  for  Mr.  Disraeli,  and 
invited  him  to  assume  Lord  Derby's  vacated  place  and  to  form 
a  Government.  By  a  curious  coincidence  the  autograph 
letter  containing  this  invitation  was  brought  from  Osborne  to 
the  new  Prime  Minister  by  General  Grey,  the  man  who  de- 
feated Mr.  Disraeli  m  his  first  endeavour  to  enter  the  House  of 


330     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVN  TIMES,     ch.  xxii. 

Commons .  That  was  tlie  contest  for  Wycombe  in  June  1832.  It 
was  a  memorable  contest  in  many  ways.  It  was  tlie  last  election 
under  the  political  conditions  which  the  Eeform  Bill  brought 
to  a  close.  The  Eeform  Bill  had  only  just  been  passed  when 
the  Wycombe  election  took  place,  and  had  not  come  into 
actual  operation.  The  state  of  the  poll  is  amusing  to  read  of 
now.  Thirty-five  voters  all  told  registered  their  suffrages. 
Twenty-three  voted  for  Colonel  Grey,  as  he  then  was  ;  twelve 
were  induced  to  support  Mr.  Disraeli.  Then  Mr.  Disraeli 
retired  from  the  contest,  and  Colonel  Grey  was  proclaimed  the 
representative  of  Wycombe  by  a  majority  of  eleven.  Nor  had 
Wycombe  exhausted  in  the  contest  all  its  electoral  strength. 
There  were,  it  seemed,  two  voters  more  in  the  borough  who 
would  have  polled,  if  it  were  necessary,  on  the  side  of  Colonel 
Grey.  Mr.  Disraeli's  successful  rival  in  that  first  struggle  for 
a  seat  in  Parliament  was  now  the  bearer  of  the  Queen's  invi- 
tation to  Mr.  Disraeli  to  become  Prime  Minister  of  England. 
The  public  in  general  were  well  pleased  that  Mr.  Disraeli 
should  reach  the  object  of  his  ambition.  It  seemed  only  the 
fit  return  for  his  long  and  hard  struggle  against  so  many 
adverse  conditions.  He  had  battled  with  his  evil  stars  ;  and 
his  triumph  over  them  pleased  most  of  those  who  had  observed 
the  contest. 

The  new  Premier  made  few  changes  in  his  Cabinet.  His 
former  lieutenant.  Lord  Cairns,  had  been  for  some  time  one  of 
the  Lords  Justices  of  the  Court  of  Chancery.  Mr.  Disraeli 
made  him  Lord  Chancellor.  In  order  to  do  this  he  had  to 
undertake  the  somewhat  ungracious  task  of  informing  Lord 
Chelmsford,  who  sat  on  the  woolsack  during  Lord  Derby's 
tenure  of  office,  that  his  services  would  no  longer  be  required. 
Lord  Chelmsford's  friends  were  very  angry,  and  a  painful  con- 
troversy began  in  the  newspapers.  It  was  plainly  stated  by 
some  of  the  aggrieved  that  Lord  Chelmsford  had  been  put 
aside  because  he  had  shown  himself  too  firmly  independent 
in  his  selection  of  judges.  But  there  seems  no  reason  to 
ascribe  Mr.  Disraeli's  action  to  any  other  than  its  obvious  and 
reasonable  motive.  His  Ministry  was  singularly  weak  in 
debating  talent  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Lord  Cairns  was  one 
of  the  best  parliamentary  debaters  of  the  day ;  Lord  Chelms- 
ford was  hardly  entitled  to  be  called  a  Parliamentary  debater 
at  all.  Lord  Cairns  was  a  really  great  lawyer  ;  Lord  Chelms- 
ford was  only  a  lawyer  of  respectable  capacity.  Lord  Chelms- 
ford was  at  that  time  nearly  seventy-five  years  old,  and  Lord 


b^\ 


v 


CH.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  331 

Cairns  was  a  quarter  of  a  century  younger.  It  was  surely  not 
necessary  to  search  for  ungenerous  or  improper  motives  to 
explain  the  act  of  the  new  Prime  Minister  in  preferring  the 
one  man  to  the  other.  Mr.  Disraeli  merely  did  his  duty. 
Nothing  could  justify  a  Minister  who  had  the  opportunity  and 
the  responsibility  of  such  a  choice  in  deciding  to  retain  Lord 
Chelmsford  rather  than  to  bring  in  Lord  Cairns. 

No  other  change  was  important.  Mr.  Ward  Hunt,  a 
respectable  country  gentleman  of  no  great  position  and  of 
moderate  abilities,  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  the 
room  of  Mr.  Disraeli.  Mr.  Walpole,  who  had  been  in  the 
Cabinet  for  some  time  without  office,  retired  from  the  Admi- 
nistration altogether.  A  good  deal  of  work  was  got  through 
in  the  session.  A  bill  was  introduced  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
system  of  public  executions,  and  passed  with  little  difficulty. 
The  only  objection  raised  was  urged  by  those  who  thought 
the  time  had  come  for  abolishing  the  system  of  capital  punish- 
ment altogether.  Public  executions  had  long  grown  to  be  a 
scandal  to  the  country.  Every  voice  had  been  crying  out 
against  them.  A  public  execution  in  London  was  a  scene  to 
fill  an  observer  with  something  like  a  loathing  for  the  whole 
human  race.  Through  all  the  long  night  before  the  execution 
the  precincts  of  the  prison  became  a  bivouac  ground  for  the 
ruffianism  of  the  metropolis.  The  roughs,  the  professional 
robbers,  and  the  prospective  murderers  held  high  festival 
there.  The  air  reeked  with  the  smell  of  strong  drink,  with 
noise  and  oaths  and  blasphemy.  The  soul  took  its  flight  as  if 
it  were  a  trapeze-performer  in  a  circus.  The  moral  effect  of 
the  scene  as  an  example  to  evil-doers  was  about  as  great  as 
the  moral  effect  of  a  cock-fight.  The  demoralising  effect, 
however,  was  broad  and  deep.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
one  in  ten  thousand  of  those  who  for  mere  curiosity  came  to 
see  an  execution  did  not  go  away  a  worse  creature  than  he  had 
come.  Since  the  change  made  in  1868  the  execution  takes 
place  within  the  precincts  of  the  gaol ;  it  is  witnessed  by  a  few 
selected  persons,  usually  including  representatives  of  the  press, 
and  it  is  certified  by  the  verdict  of  a  coroner's  jury. 

Another  change  of  ancient  system  was  made  by  the  mea- 
sure which  took  away  from  the  House  of  Commons  the  power 
of  deciding  election  petitions.  The  long- established  custom 
was,  that  an  election  petition  was  referred  to  a  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  who  heard  the  evidence  on  both  sides, 
and  then  decided  by  a  majority  of  votes  as  to  the  right  of  the 


332     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OW.V  TIMES.     CH.  xxil. 

person  elected  to  hold  the  seat.     The  system  was  open  to 
some  obvious  objections.    The  one  great  and  crying  evil  of  our 
electioneering  was   then   the   bribery  and   corruption  which 
attended   it.     A    Parliamentary  Committee  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  deal  very  stringently  with  bribery,   seeing  that 
most  of  the  members  of  the  Committee  were  sure  to  have 
carried  on  or  authorised  bribery  on  their  own  account.    A  false 
public  conscience  had  grown  up  with  regard  to  bribery.     Few 
men  held  it  really  in  hatred.     The  country  gentleman  whose 
own  vote,  when  once  he  had  been  elected,  was  unpurchasable 
by  any  money  bribe,  thought  it  quite  a  natural  and  legitimate 
thing  that  he  should  buy  his  seat  by  corrupting  voters.     Then 
again,  the  decision  of  a  Parliamentary  Committee  was  very 
often  determined  by  the  political  opinions  of  the  majority  ol 
its  members.     Acute  persons  used  to  say,  that  when  once  the 
Committee  had  been  formed  they  could  tell  what  its  decision 
would  be.    '  Show  me  the  men  and  I'll  show  you  the  decision ' 
was  the  principle.     It  was  not  always  found  to  be  so  in  prac- 
tice.    A  Committee  with  a  Conservative  majority  did  some- 
times decide  against  a  Conservative  candidate.     A  Committee 
with  a  majority  of  Whigs  has  been  known  to  unseat  a  Whig 
occupant.     But  in  general  the  decision  of  the  Committee  was 
either  influenced  by  the  political  opinions  of  its  majority,  or, 
what  was  nearly  as   bad  so  far  as  public  opinion  was  con- 
cerned, it  was  believed  to  be  so  influenced.     There  had  there- 
fore been  for  a  long  time  an  opinion  growing  up  that  some- 
thing must  be  done   to   bring  about   a   reform,  and  in  18G7 
a   Parliamentary   Select    Committee   reported    in    favour    of 
abandoning   altogether  the  system  of  referring  election  peti- 
tions  to   a   tribunal   composed   of    members   of    the    House 
3f    Commons.      The  proposal  of  this   Committee   was,   that 
every    petition    should    be    referred   to    one   of   the   Judges 
of  the  superior  courts  at  Westminster,  with  power  to  decide 
both  law  and  fact,  and  to  report  not  only  as  to  the  seat  but 
as   to   the  extent   of  bribery  and   corruption    in    the  consti- 
tuency.    The  Judges  themselves  strongly  objected  to  having 
such  duties  imposed  upon   them.     The   Lord   Chief  Justice 
stated  on  their  behalf  that  he  had  consulted  with  them,  and 
was  charged  by  them  one  and  all  to  convey  to  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor *  their   strong   and   unanimous   feeling   of  insuperable 
objection  to  undertaking  functions  the  effect  of  which  would 
be  to  lower  and  degrade  the  judicial  offlce,  and  to  destroy,  or 
at  all  events  materially  impair,  the  confidence  of  the  public  in 


CH.  xxii.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  333 

the  thorough  impartiaUty  and  inflexible  integrity  of  the  Judges, 
when  in  the  course  of  their  ordinary  duties  pohtical  matters 
come  incidentally  before  them.' 

Notwithstanding  the  objections  of  the  Judges,  however,  the 
Government,  after  having  made  one  or  two  unsuccessful  ex- 
periments at  a  measure  to  institute  a  new  court  for  the  trial 
of  election  petitions,  brought  in  a  bill  to  refer  such  petitions  to 
a  single  Judge,  selected  from  a  list  to  be  made  by  arrangement 
among  the  Judges  of  the  three  superior  courts.  This  bill, 
which  was  to  be  in  operation  for  three  years  as  an  experiment, 
was  carried  without  much  difficulty.  It  has  been  renewed  since 
that  time,  and  slightly  altered.  Tne  principle  of  referring  elec- 
tion petitions  to  the  decision  of  a  legal  tribunal  remains  in  force, 
and  it  is  very  unlikely  indeed  that  the  House  of  Commons  will 
ever  recover  its  ancient  privilege.  Many  members  of  that  House 
still  regret  the  change.     They  say,  and  not  unreasonably,  that 

.with  time  and  the  purifying  effect  of  public  opinion  the  objec- 
tions to  the  old  system  would  have  died  away.  A  Committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons  would  have  come  to  regard  bribery 
as  all  honest  and  decent  men  must  in  time  regard  it.  They 
would  acknowledge  it  a  crime  and  brand  it  accordingly.  So 
too  it  is  surely  probable  that  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons sitting  to  hear  an  election  petition  would  have  got  over 
that  low  condition  of  political  morals  which  allowed  them  to 
give,  or  be  suspected  of  giving,  their  decision  for  partisan 
purposes  without  regard  to  facts  and  to  justice.     It  is  right  to 

^ay  that  none  of  the  effects  anticipated  by  the  Chief  Justice 
were  felt  in  England.  The  impartiality  of  the  Judges  was 
never  called  in  question.  In  Ireland  it  was  otherwise,  at 
least  in  some  instances.  Judges  are  rarely  appointed  in 
Ireland  who  have  not  held  law  office  ;  and  law  office  is  usually 
obtained  by  Parliamentary,  in  other  words,  by  partisan  service. 
There  is  not,  therefore,  always  the  same  confidence  in  the  im- 
partiality of  the  Judges  in  Ireland  that  prevails  in  England, 
and  it  must  be  owned  that  in  one  or  two  instances  at  least, 
the  effect  of  referring  an  election  petition  to  the  decision  of  an 
Irish  Judge  was  not  by  any  means  favourable  to  the  public 
faith  either  in  the  dignity  or  impartiality  of  the  Bench.  Of 
late  years  some  really  stringent  measures  have  been  taken 
against  bribery.  Several  boroughs  have  been  disfranchised 
altogether  because  of  the  gross  and  seemingly  ineradicable 
corruption  that  prevailed  there.  Time,  education,  and  public 
opinion  will  probably  before  long  cleanse  our  political  system 


334     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxil. 

of  the  stain  of  bribery.  Before  long  surely  it  will  be  accounted 
as  base  to  give  as  to  take  a  bribe. 

The  House  of  Lords  too  abandoned  about  this  time  one  of 
their  ancient  usages — the  custom  of  voting  by  proxy.  A 
Select  Committee  of  the  Peers  had  recommended  that  the 
practice  should  be  discontinued.  It  was  defended  of  course, 
as  every  antiquated  and  anomalous  practice  is  sure  to  be 
defended.  It  was  urged,  for  example,  that  no  men  can  be 
better  qualified  to  understand  the  great  political  questions  of 
the  day  than  members  of  the  House  of  Peers  who  are  em- 
ployed in  the  diplomatic  service  abroad,  and  that  it  is  unfair 
to  exclude  these  men  from  affirming  their  opinion  by  a  vote, 
even  though  they  cannot  quit  their  posts  and  return  home  to 
give  the  vote  in  person.  This  small  grievance,  if  it  were 
one,  was  very  properly  held  to  be  of  little  account  when  com- 
pared with  the  obvious  objections  to  the  practice.  The  House 
of  Lords,  however,  w^ere  not  willing  absolutely  and  for  ever  to 
give  up  the  privilege.  They  only  passed  a  standing  order 
'  that  the  practice  of  calling  for  proxies  on  a  division  be  dis- 
continued, and  that  two  days'  notice  be  given  of  any  motion 
for  the  suspension  of  the  order.'  It  is  not  likely  that  any 
attempt  will  be  made  to  suspend  the  order  and  renew  the 
obsolete  practice. 

The  Government  ventured  this  year  on  the  bold  but  judi- 
cious step  of  acquiring  possession  of  all  the  lines  of  telegraph, 
and  making  the  control  of  communication  by  wire  a  part  of 
the  business  of  the  Post  Office.  They  did  not  succeed  in 
making  a  very  good  bargain  of  it,  and  for  a  time  the  new 
management  resulted  in  the  most  distracting  confusion.  But 
the  country  highly  approved  of  the  purchase.  The  Post 
Office  has  long  been  one  of  the  best  managed  departments  of 
the  Civil  Service. 

An  important  event  in  the  year's  history  was  the  success- 
ful conclusion  of  the  expedition  into  Abyssinia.  A  vague 
«iysterious  interest  hung  around  Abyssinia.  It  is  a  land 
which  claims  to  have  held  the  primitive  Christians,  and  to 
have  the  bones  of  St.  Mark  among  its  treasury  of  sacred 
relics.  It  held  fast  to  the  Christian  faith,  according  to  its  own 
views  of  that  faith,  when  Egypt  flung  it  aside  after  the  Arab 
invasion.  The  Abyssinians  trace  the  origin  of  their  empire 
back  to  the  time  of  Solomon  when  the  Queen  of  Sheba  visited 
him.  The  Emperor  or  King  of  Abyssinia  was  the  Prester 
John,  the  mysterious  king-priest  of  the  middle  ages.     If  Sir 


CH.  XXII.  STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  335 

John  Mandeville  may  be  accepted  as  any  authority,  that 
traveller  avers  that  the  title  of  Prester  John  rose  from  the 
fact  that  one  of  the  early  kings  of  Abyssinia  went  with  a 
Christian  knight  into  a  Christian  church  in  Egypt  and  was  so 
charmed  with  the  service  that  he  vowed  he  would  thenceforth 
take  the  title  of  priest.  He  further  declared,  that  *  he  wolde 
have  the  name  of  the  first  preest  that  wente  out  of  the 
Chirche ;  and  his  name  was  John.'  The  controversy  over 
Bruce's  travels  in  Abyssinia  excited  in  1790  a  curiosity  as  to 
the  land  of  Prester  John,  which  was  revived  in  1865  by  the 
fact  that  a  number  of  British  subjects,  men  and  women,  were 
held  in  captivity  by  Theodore,  King  of  Abyssinia.  Among  the 
captives  in  Theodore's  hands  were  Captain  Cameron,  her 
Majesty's  Consul  at  Massowah,  with  his  secretary  and  some 
servants ;  Mr.  Hormuzd  Eassam,  a  Syrian  Christian  and 
naturalised  subject  of  the  Queen ;  Lieutenant  Prideaux,  and 
Dr.  Blanc.  These  men  were  made  prisoners  while  actually 
engaged  on  official  business  of  the  English  Government,  and 
the  expedition  was*therefore  formally  charged  to  recover  them. 
But  there  were  several  other  captives  as  well,  whom  the 
Commander-in-Chief  was  enjoined  to  take  under  his  protec- 
tion. There  were  German  missionaries  and  their  wives  and 
children,  some  of  the  women  being  English ;  some  teachers, 
a]J:ists,  and  workmen,  all  European.  The  quarrel  which  led 
to  the  imprisonment  of  these  people  was  of  old  standing. 
Some  of  the  missionaries  had  been  four  years  in  duress 
before  the  expedition  was  sent  out  to  their  rescue.  In  April 
1865,  Lord  Chelmsford  had  called  the  attention  of  the  House 
of  Lords  to  the  treatment  which  certain  British  subjects  were 
then  receiving  at  the  hands  of  Theodore,  the  Negus  or 
supreme  ruler  of  Abyssmia.  Theodore  was  a  usurper.  Few 
Eastern  sovereigns  who  have  in  any  way  made  their  mark  on 
history,  from  Haroun-al-Easchid  and  Saladin  downwards,  can 
be  described  by  any  other  name  than  that  of  usurper.  Theo- 
dore seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  strong  barbaric  nature,  a 
compound  of  savage  virtue  and  more  than  savage  ambition 
and  cruelty.  He  was  open  to  passionate  and  lasting  friend- 
ships ;  his  nature  was  swept  by  stormy  gusts  of  anger  and 
hatred.  His  moods  of  fury  and  of  mildness  came  and  went 
like  the  thunderstorms  and  calms  ot  a  tropic  region.  He  had 
had  a  devoted  friendship  for  Mr.  Plowden,  a  former  English 
Consul  at  Massowah,  who  had  actually  lent  Theodore  his  help 
in  putting  down  a  rebellion,  and  was  killed  by  the  rebels  in 


336     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,    CH.  xxii. 

consequence.  When  Theodore  had  crushed  the  rebelhon,  he 
slaughtered  more  than  a  hundred  of  the  rebel  prisoners  as  a 
sacrifice  to  the  memory  of  his  English  friend.  Captain 
Cameron  was  sent  to  succeed  Mr.  Plowden.  It  should  be 
stated  that  neither  Mr.  Plowden  nor  Captain  Cameron  was 
appointed  Consul  for  any  part  of  Abyssinia.  Massowah  is  an 
island  off  the  African  shore  of  the  Ked  Sea.  It  is  in  Turkish 
ownership  and  forms  no  part  of  Abyssinia,  although  it  is  the 
principal  starting  point  to  the  interior  of  that  country  from 
Egypt,  and  the  great  outlet  for  Abyssinian  trade.  Consuls 
were  sent  to  Massowah,  according  to  the  terms  of  Mr.  Plow- 
[  den's  appointment .  in  1848,  '  for  the  protection  of  British 
trade  with  Abyssinia  and  with  the  countries  adjacent  thereto.' 
Mr.  Plowden,  however,  had  made  himself  an  active  ally  of 
King  Theodore,  a  course  of  proceeding  which  naturally  gave 
great  dissatisfaction  to  the  English  Government.  Captain 
Cameron,  therefore,  received  positive  instructions  to  take  no 
part  in  the  quarrels  of  Theodore  and  his  subjects,  and  was 
reminded  by  Lord  John  Eussell  that  he  hfeld  *  no  representa- 
tive character  in  Abyssinia.'  It  probably  seemed  to  Theodore 
that  the  attitude  of  England  was  altered  and  unfriendly,  and 
thus  the  dispute  began  which  led  to  the  seizure  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. Captain  Cameron  seems  to  have  been  much  want- 
ing in  discretion,  and  Theodore  suspected  him  of  intriguiog 
with  Egypt.  Theodore  wrote  a  letter  to  Queen  Victoria 
requesting  help  against  the  Turks,  and  for  some  reason  the 
letter  remained  unanswered.  A  story  went  that  Theodore 
cherished  a  strong  ambition  to  become  the  husband  of  the 
Queen  of  England,  and  even  represented  that  his  descent 
from  the  Queen  of  Shcba  made  him  not  unworthy  of  such 
an  alliance.  Whether  he  ever  put  his  proposals  into  formal 
shape  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  misunderstandings  arose ;  that 
Theodore  fancied  himself  slighted  ;  and  that  he  wreaked  his 
wrongs  by  seizing  all  the  British  subjects  within  his  reach, 
and  throwing  them  into  captivity.  They  were  put  in  chains, 
and  kept  in  Magdala,  his  rock-based  capital.  Consul  Cameron 
was  among  the  number.  He  had  imprudently  gone  back  into 
Abyssinia  from  Massowah,  and  was  at  once  pounced  upon  by 
the  furious  descendant  of  Prester  John. 

The  English  Government  had  a  difficult  task  before  them. 
It  seemed  not  unlikely  that  the  first  movement  made  by  an 
mvading  expedition  might  be  the  signal  for  the  massacre  of 
the  prisoners.     The  effect  of  conciliation  was  therefore  tried 


CH.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  337 

in  the  first  instance.  Mr.  Kassam,  who  held  the  office  of 
Assistant  British  Eesident  at  Aden,  a  man  who  had  acquired 
some  distinction  under  Mr.  Layard  in  exploring  the  remains 
of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Theodore 
with  a  message  from  Queen  Victoria.  Lieutenant  Prideaux 
and  Dr.  Blanc  were  appointed  to  accompany  him.  Theodore 
played  with  Mr.  Rassam  for  a  while,  and  then  added  him  and 
his  companions  to  the  number  of  the  captives.  Theodore 
seems  to  have  become  more  and  more  possessed  with  the  idea 
that  the  English  Government  were  slighting  him  ;  and  one  or 
two  unlucky  mishaps  or  misconceptions  gave  him  some 
excuse  for  cherishing  the  suspicion  in  his  jealous  and  angry 
mind.  At  last  an  ultimatum  was  sent  by  Lord  Stanley, 
demanding  the  release  of  the  captives  within  three  months  on 
penalty  of  war.  This  letter  does  not  seem  to  have  ever 
reached  the  King's  hands.  The  Government  made  prepara- 
tions for  war*,  and  appointed  Sir  Robert  Napier,  now  Lord 
Napier  of  Magdala,  then  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  of 
Bombay,  to  conduct  the  expedition.  A  winter  sitting  of  Par- 
liament was  held  in  November  1867,  supplies  were  voted, 
and  the  expeditionary  force  set  out  from  Bombay. 

The  expedition  was  well  managed.  Its  work  was,  if  we 
may  use  a  somewhat  homely  expression,  done  to  time.  The 
military  difficulties  were  not  great,  but  the  march  had  to  be 
made  across  some  four  hundred  miles  of  a  mountainous  and 
roadless  country.  The  army  had  to  make  its  way,  now  under 
burning  sun,  and  now  amidst  storms  of  rain  and  sleet, 
through  broken  and  perplexing  mountain  gorges  and  over 
momitain  heights  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  level.  Any- 
thing hke  a  skilful  resistance,  even  such  resistance  as  savages 
might  well  have  been  expected  to  make,  would  have  placed 
the  lives  of  all  the  force  in  the  utmost  danger.  The  mere 
work  of  carrying  the  supplies  safely  along  through  such  a 
country  was  of  itself  enough  to  keep  the  energies  of  the  invad- 
ing army  on  the  utmost  strain.  Meanwhile  the  captives  were 
dragging  out  life  in  the  very  bitterness  of  death.  The  King 
still  oscillated  between  caprices  of  kindness  and  impulses  of 
cruelty.  He  sometimes  strolled  in  upon  the  prisoners  in  care- 
less undress ;  perhaps  in  European  shirt  and  trousers,  with- 
out a  coat ;  and  he  cheerily  brought  with  him  a  bottle  of 
wine,  which  he  insisted  on  the  captives  sharing  with  him.  At 
other  times  he  visited  them  in  the  mood  of  one  who  loved  to 
feast  his  eyes  on  the  anticipatory  terrors  of  the  victims  he  has 

15 


338     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.    CH.  xxil. 

determined  to  destroy.  He  had  still  great  faith  in  the  fighting 
power  of  his  Abyssinians.  Sometimes  he  was  in  high  spirits, 
and  declared  that  he  longed  for  an  encounter  with  the  inva- 
ders. At  other  moments,  however,  and  when  the  steady  cer- 
tain march  of  the  English  soldiers  was  bringing  them  nearer 
and  nearer,  he  seems  to  have  lost  heart  and  become  impressed 
with  a  boding  conviction  that  nothing  would  ever  go  well  with 
him  again.  One  account  describes  him  as  he  looked  into  the 
gathering  clouds  of  an  evening  sky  and  drew  melancholy 
auguries  of  his  own  fate.  Sir  Robert  Napier  arrived  in  front 
of  Magdala  in  the  beginning  of  April  1868.  One  battle  was 
fought  on  the  tenth  of  the  month.  Perhaps  it  ought  not  to  be 
called  a  battle.  It  is  better  to  say  that  the  Abyssinians  made 
such  an  attack  on  the  English  troops  as  a  bull  sometimes 
makes  on  a  railway  train  in  full  motion.  The  Abyssinians 
attacked  with  wild  courage  and  spirit.  The  English  weapons 
and  the  English  discipline  simply  swept  the  assailants  away. 
Others  came  on  ;  wild  charges  were  made  again  and  again ; 
five  hundred  Abyssinians  were  killed,  and  three  times  as 
many  wounded.  Not  one  of  the  English  force  was  killed,  and 
only  nineteen  men  were  wounded. 

Then  Theodore  tried  to  come  to  terms.  He  sent  back  all 
the  prisoners,  who  at  last  found  themselves  safe  and  free 
under  the  protection  of  the  English  flag.  But  Theodore  would 
not  surrender.  Sir  Robert  Napier  had  therefore  no  alternative 
but  to  order  an  assault  on  his  stronghold.  Magdala  was 
perched  upon  cliffs  so  high  and  steep,  that  it  was  said  a  cat 
could  not  climb  them  except  at  two  points — one  north  and 
one  south — at  each  of  which  a  narrow  path  led  up  to  a  strong 
gateway.  The  attack  was  made  by  the  northern  path,  and 
despite  all  the  difficulties  of  the  ascent,  the  attacking  party 
reached  the  gate,  forced  it,  and  captured  Magdala.  Those 
who  first  entered  found  Theodore's  dead  body  inside  the  gate. 
Defeated  and  despairing  he  had  died  in  the  high  Roman 
fashion  :  by  his  own  hand. 

The  rock-fortress  of  King  Theodore  was  destroyed  by  the 
conqueror.  Sir  Robert  Napier  was  unwilling  to  leave  the 
place  in  its  strength,  because  he  had  little  doubt  that  if  he  did 
so  it  would  be  seized  upon  by  a  fierce  Mohammedan  tribe,  the 
bitter  enemies  of  the  Abyssinian  Christians.  He  therefore  dis- 
mantled and  destroyed  the  place.  '  Nothing,'  to  use  his  own 
language,  '  but  blackened  rock  remains '  of  what  was  Mag- 
dala.    The  expedition  returned  to  the  coast  almost  imrne- 


CH.  XXII.         STRIFE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD,  339 

diately.  In  less  than  a  week  after  the  capture  of  Magdala  it 
was  on  its  march  to  the  sea.  On  June  21  the  troopship 
Crocodile  arrived  at  Plymouth  with  the  first  detachment  of 
troops  from  Abyssinia.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  effec- 
tively planned,  conducted,  and  timed  than  the  whole  expedi- 
tion. It  went  and  came  to  the  precise  moment  appointed  for 
every  movement,  like  an  express  train.  That  was  its  great 
merit.  Warlike  difficulties  it  had  none  to  encounter.  No 
one  can  doubt  that  such  difficulties  too,  had  they  presented 
themselves,  would  have  been  encountered  with  success.  The 
struggle  was  against  two  tough  enemies,  climate  and  moun- 
tain ;  and  Sir  Eobert  Napier  won.  He  was  made  Baron 
Napier  of  Magdala,  and  received  a  pension.  The  thanks  of 
both  Houses  of  Parliament  were  voted  to  the  army  of  Abys- 
sinia and  its  commander. 

The  widow  of  King  Theodore  died  in  the  English  camp 
before  the  return  of  the  expedition.  Theodore's  son,  Alama- 
you,  aged  seven  years,  was  taken  charge  of  by  Queen  Victoria, 
and  for  a  while  educated  in  India.  The  boy  was  afterwards 
brought  to  England ;  but  he  never  reached  maturity.  All  the 
care  that  could  be  taken  of  him  here  did  not  keep  him  from 
withering  and  dying  under  the  influence  of  an  uncongenial 
civilisation.  No  attempt  was  made  to  interfere  wiLh  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  Abyssinia.  Having  destroyed  their  monarchy, 
the  invaders  left  the  Abyssinians  to  do  as  they  would  for  the 
establishment  of  another.  Sir  Robert  Napier  declared  one  of 
the  chiefs  a  friend  of  the  British,  and  this  chief  had  some 
hopes  of  obtaining  the  sovereignty  of  the  country.  But  his 
rank  as  a  friend  of  the  British  did  not  prevent  him  from  being 
defeated  in  a  struggle  with  a  rival,  and  this  latter  not  long 
after  succeeded  in  having  himself  crowned  king  under  the 
title  of  John  the  Second.  Another  Prester  John  was  set  up 
in  Abyssinia. 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 

IKISH    QUESTIONS. 

*  The  Irish  Peasant  to  his  Mistress '  is  the  name  of  one  of 
Moore's  finest  songs.  The  Irish  peasant  tells  his  mistress  of 
his  undying  fidelity  to  her.  *  Through  griei  and  through 
danger  '  her  smile  has  cheered  his  way.  '  The  darker  our  ior- 
tunes  the  purer  thy  bright  love  burned  ' ;  it  turned  shame  into 


340     A  SHORT  BIS  TORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.  CH.  xxiil. 

glory  ;  fear  into  zeal.  Slave  as  he  was,  with  her  to  guide  him 
he  felt  free.     She  had  a  rival ;  and  the  rival  was  honoured, 

*  while  thou  wert  mocked  and  scorned.'  The  rival  wore  a 
crown  of  gold  ;  the  other's  brows  were  girt  with  thorns.  The 
rival  wooed  him  to  temples,  while  the  loved  one  lay  hid  in 
caves.  *  Her  friends  were  all  masters,  while  thine,  alas,  are 
slaves  !  '  *  Yet,'  he  declares,  *  cold  in  the  eartl^  at  thy  feet  I 
would  rather  be  than  wed  one  I  love  not,  or  turn  one  thought 
from  thee.' 

The  Irish  peasant's  mistress  is  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
rival  was  the  State  Church  set  up  by  English  authority.  The 
Irish  peasant  remained  through  centuries  of  persecution 
devotedly  faithful  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Nothing  could  win 
or  wean  him  from  it.  The  Irish  population  of  Ireland — there 
is  meaning  in  the  words — were  made  apparently  by  nature  for 
the  Catholic  faith.  Half  the  thoughts,  half  the  life  of  the  Irish 
peasant,  belong  to  a  world  other  than  the  material  world  around 
him.  The  supernatural  becomes  almost  the  natural  for  him. 
The  streams,  the  valleys,  the  hills  of  his  native  country  are 
peopled  by  mystic  forms  and  melancholy  legends,  which  are 
all  but  living  things  for  him.  Even  the  railway  has  not 
banished  from  the  land  his  familiar  fancies  and  dreams.     The 

*  good  people  '  still  linger  around  the  raths  and  glens.  The 
banshee  even  yet  laments,  in  dirge-like  wailings,  the  death  of 
the  representative  of  each  ancient  house.  The  very  super- 
stitions oi  the  Irish  peasant  take  a  devotional  form.  They  are 
never  degrading.  His  piety  is  not  merely  sincere  :  it  is  even 
practical.  It  sustains  him  against  many  hard  trials,  and 
enables  him  to  bear,  in  cheerful  patience,  a  lifelong  trouble. 
He  praises  God  for  everything ;  not  as  an  act  of  mere  devo- 
tional formality,  but  as  by  instinct ;  the  praise  naturally 
rising  to  his  lips.  Old  men  and  women  in  Ireland  who  seem, 
to  the  observer,  to  have  lived  lives  of  nothing  but  privation 
and  suffering,  are  heard  to  murmur  with  their  latest  breath 
the  fervent  declaration  that  the  Lord  was  good  to  them 
always.  Assuredly  this  genuine  piety  does  not  always  prevent 
the  wild  Celtic  nature  from  breaking  forth  into  fierce  excesses. 
Stormy  outbursts  of  passion,  gusts  of  savage  revenge,  too 
often  sweep  away  the  soul  of  the  Irish  peasant  from  the  quiet 
moorings  in  whicli  his  natural  piety  and  the  teachings  of  his 
Church  would  hold  it.  But  deep  down  in  his  nature  is  that 
faith  in  the  other  world  and  its  visible  connection  and  inter- 
course with  this  ;  his  reverence  for  the  teaching  which  shows 


CH.  xxill.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  34I 

him  a  clear  title  to  immortality.  For  this  very  reason,  when 
the  Irish  peasant  throws  off  altogether  the  guidance  of  reli- 
gion, he  is  apt  to  rush  into  worse  extravagances  and  excesses 
than  most  other  men.  He  is  not  made  to  be  a  rationalist ;  he 
is  made  to  be  a  believer. 

The  Irishman  was  bound  by  ties  of  indescribable  strength 
and  complication  to  his  own  Church.  The  State  Church  set 
up  in  Ireland  was  to  him  a  symbol  of  oppression.  There  was 
not  one  rational  word  to  be  said  on  principle  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  such  an  institution.  Every  argument  in  favour  of  the 
State  Church  in  England  was  an  argument  against  the  State 
Church  in  Ireland,  The  English  Church,  as  an  institution, 
is  defended  on  the  ground  that  it  represents  the  religious  con- 
victions of  the  great  majority  of  the  English  people,  and  that 
it  is  qualified  to  take  welcome  charge  of  those  who  w^ould 
otherwise  be  left  without  any  religious  care  or  teaching  in 
England.  The  Catholics  in  Ireland  were,  to  all  other  deno- 
minations together,  as  five  to  one ;  the  State  Church  repre- 
sented only  a  small  proportion  of  a  very  small  minority.  In 
many  places  the  Protestant  clergyman  preached  to  a  dozen 
listeners  ;  in  some  places  he  thought  himself  lucky  when  he 
could  get  half  a  dozen.  There  were  many  places  with  a  Pro- 
testant clergyman  and  Protestant  church  and  absolutely  no 
Protestant  worshippers.  There  had  not  of  late  years  been 
much  positive  hostility  to  the  State  Church  among  the  Irish 
people.  So  long  as  the  clergyman  was  content  to  live  quietly 
and  mind  his  own  flock,  where  he  had  any  to  mind,  his 
Catholic  neighbours  were  not  disposed  to  trouble  themselves 
much  about  him.  If  he  was  a  sensible  man  he  was  usually 
content  to  minister  to  his  own  people  and  meddle  no  further 
with  others.  In  the  large  towns  he  generally  had  his  consi- 
derable congregation,  and  was  busy  enough.  In  some  of  the 
country  places  of  the  south  and  west  he  preached  every 
Sunday  to  his  little  flock  of  five  or  six,  while  the  congregation 
of  the  Catholic  chapel  a  short  distance  off  were  covering  great 
part  of  the  hillside  around  the  chapel  door,  because  their 
numbers  were  many  times  too  great  to  allow  them  to  find 
room  within  the  building  itself.  In  days  nearer  to  our  own 
the  miserable  hovel  had  for  the  most  part  given  place  to  a 
large  and  handsome  church ;  in  many  places  to  a  vast  and 
stately  cathedral.  Nothing  could  be  more  remarkable  than 
the  manner  in  which  the  voluntary  offerings  of  the  Irish 
Catholics  covered  the  lace  of  the  country  with  churcLes  decU^ 


342     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.  CH.  xxiit 

cated  to  the  uses  of  their  faith.  Often  contributions  came  in 
liberal  measure  from  Irishmen  settled  in  far-off  comitries  who 
were  not  likely  ever  again  to  see  their  native  fields.  Irish 
Catholic  priests  crossed  the  Atlantic,  crossed  even  the  Pacific, 
to  ask  for  help  to  maintain  their  churches  ;  and  there  came 
from  Quebec  and  Ontario,  from  New  York,  New  Orleans  and 
Chicago,  from  Melbourne  and  Sydney,  from  Tasmania  and 
New  Zealand,  the  money  which  put  up  churches  and  spires 
on  the  Irish  mountain-sides.  The  proportion  between  the  Pro- 
testants and  the  Catholics  began  to  tell  more  and  more  dis- 
advantageously  for  the  State  Church  as  years  went  on.  Of 
late  the  influx  of  the  Catholic  working  population  into  the 
northern  province  threatens  to  overthrow  the  supremacy  of 
Protestantism  in  Protestantism's  own  stronghold. 

On  March  16,  18G8,  a  remarkable  debate  took  place  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  had  for  its  subject  the  condition  of 
Ireland,  and  it  was  introduced  by  a  series  of  resolutions  which 
Mr.  John  Francis  Maguire,  an  Irish  member,  proposed.  Mr. 
Maguire  was  a  man  of  high  character  and  great  ability  and 
earnestness.  He  was  a  newspaper  proprietor  and  an  author ; 
he  knew  Ireland  well,  but  he  also  knew  England  and  the 
temper  of  the  English  people.  He  was  ardent  in  his  national 
sympathies  ;  but  he  was  opposed  to  any  movements  of  a  sedi- 
tious or  a  violent  character.  He  had  more  than  once  risked  his 
popularity  among  his  countrymen  by  the  resolute  stand  which 
he  made  against  any  agitation  that  tended  towards  rebellion. 
Mr.  Maguire  always  held  that  the  geographical  situation  of 
England  and  Ireland  rendered  a  se^Daration  of  the  two  coun- 
tries impossible.  But  he  accepted  cordially  the  saying  of 
Grattan,  that  if  the  ocean  forbade  separation,  the  sea  denied 
union.  He  was  in  favour  of  a  domestic  legislature  for  Ireland, 
and  he  was  convinced  that  such  a  measure  would  be  found  the 
means  of  establishing  a  true  and  genial  union  of  feeling,  a 
friendly  partnership  between  the  two  countries.  Mr.  Maguire 
was  looked  on  with  respect  and  confidence  by  all  parties  in 
England  as  well  as  in  his  own  country.  Even  the  Fenians, 
whose  schemes  he  condemned  as  he  had  condemned  the 
Young  Ireland  movement  of  1848,  were  willing  to  admit  his 
honesty  and  his  courage,  for  they  found  that  there  was  no 
staunclier  advocate  in  Parliament  for  a  generous  dealing  with 
the  Fenian  prisoners.  A  speaker  of  remarkable  power  and  ear- 
nestness, he  was  always  listened  to  with  attention  in  the  House 
of  Commons.    It  was  well  known  tliat  he  had  declined  tenders 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH   QUESTIONS.  343 

of  office  frcrni  both  of  the  great  Enghsh  parties ;  and  it  was 
known  too  that  he  had  done  this  at  a  time  when  his  personal 
interests  made  his  refusal  a  considerable  sacrifice.  When 
therefore  he  invited  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
the  condition  of  Ireland,  the  House  knew  that  it  was  likely  to 
have  a  fair  and  a  trustworthy  exposition  of  the  subject. 

In  the  course  of  his  speech  Mr.  Maguire  laid  great  stress 
upon  the  evil  effect  wrought  upon  Ireland  by  the  existence  of 
the  Irish  Church.  During  the  debate  Lord  Mayo,  then  Irish 
Secretary,  made  a  speech  in  which  he  threw  out  some  hint 
about  a  policy  of  equalising  all  religious  denominations  in 
Ireland  without  sacrificing  the  Irish  Church.  It  has  never 
since  been  known  for  certain  whether  he  was  giving  a  hint  of 
a  scheme  actually  in  the  mind  of  the  Government ;  whether 
he  was  speaking  as  one  set  up  to  feel  his  way  into  the  opinion 
of  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  public  ;  or  whether  he  was 
only  following  out  some  sudden  and  irresponsible  speculations 
of  his  own.  The  words,  however,  produced  a  great  effect  on 
the  House  of  Commons.  It  became  evident  at  once  that  the 
question  of  the  Irish  Church  was  making  itself  at  last  a  subject 
for  the  practical  politician.  Mr.  Bright,  in  the  course  of  the 
debate,  strongly  denounced  the  Irish  Establishment,  and  en- 
joined the  Government  and  all  the  great  English  parties  to  rise 
to  the  occasion,  and  resolve  to  deal  in  some  serious  way  with 
the  condition  oi  Ireland.  Difficulties  of  the  gravest  nature 
he  fully  admitted  were  yet  in  the  way,  but  he  reminded  the 
House,  in  tones  of  solemn  and  penetrating  earnestness,  that 
*  to  the  upright  there  ariseth  light  in  the  darkness.'  But  it 
was  on  the  fourth  night  of  the  debate  that  the  importance  of 
the  occasion  became  fully  manifest.  Then  it  was  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  spoke,  and  declared  that  in  his  opinion  the  time 
had  come  when  the  Irish  Church  as  a  State  institution  must 
cease  to  exist.  Then  every  man  in  the  House  knew  that  the  end 
was  near.  Mr.  Maguire  withdrew  his  resolutions.  The  cause 
he  had  to  serve  was  now  in  the  hands  of  one  who,  though  not 
surely  more  earnest  for  its  success,  had  incomparably  greater 
power  to  serve  it.  There  was  probably  not  a  single  English- 
man capable  of  forming  an  opinion  who  did  not  know  that 
from  the  moment  when  Mr.  Gladstone  made  his  declaration, 
the  fall  of  the  Irish  State  Church  had  become  merely  a  ques- 
tion of  time.  Men  only  waited  to  see  how  Mr.  Gladstone 
would  proceed  to  procure  its  fall. 

Public  expectation  was  not  long  kept  in  suspense.     A  few 


344     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.  CH.  xxill. 

days  after  the  debate  on  Mr.  Maguire's  motion,  Mr.  Gladstone 
gave  notice  of  three  resohitions  on  the  subject  of  the  Irish 
State  Church.  The  first  declared  that  in  the  opinion  of  the 
House  of  Commons  it  was  necessary  that  the  Established 
Church  of  Ireland  should  cease  to  exist  as  an  Establishment, 
due  regard  being  had  to  all  personal  interests  and  to  all  indi- 
vidual rights  of  property.  The  second  resolution  pronounced 
it  expedient  to  prevent  the  creation  of  new  personal  interests 
by  the  exercise  of  any  public  patronage  ;  and  the  third  asked 
for  an  address  to  the  Queen,  praying  that  her  Majesty  would 
place  at  the  disposal  of  Parliament  her  interest  in  the  tempo- 
ralities of  the  Irish  Church.  The  object  of  these  resolutions 
was  simply  to  prepare  for  the  actual  disestablishment  of  the 
Church,  by  providing  that  no  further  appointments  should  be 
made,  and  that  the  action  of  patronage  should  be  stayed,  until 
Parliament  should  decide  the  fate  of  the  whole  institution. 
On  March  30,  1868,  Mr.  Gladstone  proposed  his  resolutions. 
Not  many  persons  could  have  had  much  doubt  as  to  the  result 
of  the  debate.  But  if  there  were  any  such,  their  doubts  must 
have  begun  to  vanish  when  they  read  the  notice  of  amendment 
to  the  resolutions  which  was  given  by  Lord  Stanley.  The 
amendment  proclaimed  even  more  surely  than  the  resolutions 
the  impending  fall  of  the  Irish  Church.  Lord  Stanley  must 
have  been  supposed  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the  Government 
and  the  Conservative  party ;  and  his  amendment  merely 
declared  that  the  House,  while  admitting  that  considerable 
modifications  in  the  temporalities  of  the  Church  in  Ireland 
might  appear  to  be  expedient,  was  of  opinion  '  that  any  pro- 
position tending  to  the  disestablishment  or  disendowment  of 
that  Church  ought  to  be  reserved  for  the  decision  of  the  new 
Parliament.'  Lord  Stanley's  amendment  asked  only  for  delay. 
It  did  not  plead  that  to-morrow  w^ould  be  sudden  ;  it  only 
asked  that  the  stroke  of  doom  should  not  be  allowed  to  fall  on 
the  Irish  Church  to-day. 

The  debate  was  one  of  great  power  and  interest.  Some 
of  the  speakers  were  heard  at  their  very  best.  Mr.  Bright 
made  a  speech  which  was  well  worthy  of  the  occasion  and  the 
orator.  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy  was  in  his  very  element.  He 
flung  aside  all  consideration  of  amendment,  compromise,  or 
delay,  and  went  in  for  a  vehement  defence  of  the  Irish  Church. 
Mr.  Hardy  was  not  a  debater  of  keen  logical  power  nor  an 
orator  of  genuine  inspiration,  but  he  always  could  rattle  a 
defiant  drum  with  excellent  effect.     He  beat  the  war-drum 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  345 

this  time  with  tremendous  energy.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr. 
Lowe  threw  an  intensity  of  bitterness  remarkable  even  for  him 
into  the  misparing  logic  with  which  he  assailed  the  Irish 
Chm'ch.  That  Church,  he  said,  was  '  like  an  exotic  brought 
from  a  far  country,  tended  with  infinite  pains  and  useless 
trouble.  It  is  kept  alive  with  the  greatest  difficulty  and  at 
great  expense  m  an  ungenial  climate  and  an  ungrateful  soil. 
The  curse  of  barrenness  is  upon  it.  It  has  no  leaves,  put3 
forth  no  blossom,  and  yields  no  fruit.  Cut  it  down  ;  why 
cumbereth  it  the  ground  ? '  Not  the  least  remarkable  speech 
of  the  debate  was  that  made  by  Lord  Cranborne,  who  de- 
nounced the  Government  of  which  he  was  not  long  since  a 
member  with  an  energy  of  hatred  almost  like  ferocity.  He 
accused  his  late  colleagues  of  having  in  every  possible  way 
betrayed  the  cause  of  Conservatism,  and  he  assailed  Mr. 
Disraeli  personally  in  a  manner  which  made  older  members 
think  of  the  days  when  Mr.  Disraeli  was  denouncing  Sir 
Ptobert  Peel.  No  eloquence  and  no  invective  however  could 
stay  the  movement  begun  by  Mr.  Gladstone.  When  the 
division  was  called  there  were  270  votes  for  the  amendment, 
and  331  against  it.  The  doom  of  the  Irish  Church  was  pro- 
nounced by  a  majority  of  61.  An  interval  was  afforded  for 
agitation  on  both  sides.  The  House  of  Commons  had  only 
decided  against  Lord  Stanley's  amendment.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
resolutions  had  yet  to  be  discussed.  Lord  Kussell  presided  at 
a  great  meeting  held  in  St.  James's  Hall  for  the  purpose  of 
expressing  public  sympathy  with  the  movement  to  disestablish 
the  Irish  Church.  Many  meetings  were  held  by  those  on  the 
other  side  of  the  question  as  well ;  but  it  was  obvious  to 
everyone  that  there  was  no  great  force  in  the  attempt  at  a 
defence  of  the  Irish  Church.  That  institution  had  in  truth  a 
position  which  only  became  less  and  less  defensible  the  more 
it  was  studied.  Every  example  and  argument  drawn  from  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  England  was  but  another  condemna- 
tion of  the  Church  of  Ireland.  The  more  strongly  an  English- 
man was  inclined  to  support  his  own  Church,  the  more  anxious 
he  ought  to  have  been  to  repudiate  the  claim  of  the  Irish 
Church  to  a  similar  position. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  first  resolution  came  to  a  division  about  a 
month  after  the  defeat  of  Lord  Stanley's  amendment.  It  was 
carried  by  a  majority  somewhat  larger  than  that  which  had 
rejected  the  amendment — 380  votes  were  given  for  the  reso- 
lution; 265  against  it.  The  majority  for  the  resolution  wai 
15^ 


346     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OVR   OWN  TIMES.  CH.  xxili. 

therefore  65.  Mr.  Disraeli  quietly  observed  that  the  Govern- 
ment must  take  some  decisive  step  in  consequence  of  that  vote  ; 
and  a  lew  days  afterwards  it  was  announced  that  as  soon  as  the 
necessary  business  could  be  got  through,  Parliament  would 
be  dissolved  and  an  appeal  made  to  the  country.  On  the 
last  day  of  July  the  dissolution  took  place,  and  the  elections 
came  on  in  November.  Not  for  many  years  had  there  been 
so  important  a  general  election.  The  keenest  anxiety  pre- 
vailed as  to  its  results.  The  new  constituencies  created  by 
the  Eeform  Bill  were  to  give  their  votes  for  the  first  time. 
The  question  at  issue  was  not  merely  the  existence  of  the 
Irish  State  Church.  It  was  a  general  struggle  of  advanced 
Liberalism  against  Toryism.  No  one  could  doubt  that  Mr. 
Gladstone,  it  he  came  into  power,  would  enter  on  a  policy  of 
more  decided  Liberalism  than  had  ever  been  put  into  action 
since  the  days  of  the  Eeform  Bill  of  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  John 
Eussell.  The  result  of  the  elections  was  on  the  w'.iole  what 
might  have  been  expected.  The  Liberals  had  a  great  majority. 
But  there  were  many  curious  and  striking  instances  of  the 
growing  strength  of  Conservatism  in  certain  parts  of  the 
country.  Lancashire,  once  a  very  stronghold  of  Liberalism, 
returned  only  Tories  for  its  county  divisions,  and  even  in  most 
cases  elected  Tories  to  represent  its  boroughs.  Eight  Conser- 
vatives came  in  for  the  county  of  Lancaster,  and  among  those 
whom  their  election  displaced  were  no  less  eminent  persons 
than  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord  Hartington.  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  defeated  in  South-west  Lancashire,  but  the  result  of  the 
contest  had  been  generally  anticipated,  and  therefore  some  of 
his  supporters  put  him  up  for  Greenwich  also,  and  he  was 
elected  there.  He  had  been  passing  step  by  step  from  less 
popular  to  more  popular  constituencies.  From  the  University 
of  Oxford  he  had  passed  to  the  Lancashire  division,  and  now 
from  the  Lancashire  constituency  he  went  on  to  a  place  where 
the  Liberal  portion  of  the  electors  were  inclined,  for  the  most 
part,  to  be  not  merely  Eadical  but  democratic. 

The  contest  in  North  Lancashire  was  made  more  interesting 
than  it  would  otherwise  have  been  by  the  fact  that  it  was  not 
alone  a  struggle  between  opposing  principles  and  parties,  but 
also  between  two  great  rival  houses.  Lord  Hartington  repre- 
sented the  great  Cavendish  family.  Mr.  Frederick  Stanley 
was  the  younger  son  of  Lord  Derby.  Lord  Hartington  was 
defeated  by  a  large  majority,  and  was  left  out  of  Parliament 
for  a  few  months.     He  was  afterwards  elected  for  the  Eadnor 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  347 

Boroughs.  Mr.  Mill  was  defeated  at  Westminster.  His 
defeat  was  brought  about  by  a  combination  of  causes.  He 
had  been  elected  in  a  moment  of  sudden  enthusiasm,  and  the 
enthusiasm  had  now  had  time  to  cool  away.  He  had  given  some 
offence  in  various  quarters  by  a  too  great  independence  of  action 
and  of  expression.  On  many  questions  of  deep  interest  he 
had  shown  that  he  was  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  the 
views  of  the  vast  majority  of  his  constituents,  whatever  their 
religious  denomination  might  be.  He  had  done  some  things 
which  people  called  eccentric,  and  an  English  popular  con- 
stituency does  not  love  eccentricity.  His  opponent,  Mr. 
W.  H.  Smith,  was  very  popular  in  Westminster,  and  had  been, 
quietly  canvassing  it  for  years.  Some  of  the  Westminster, 
electors  had  probably  *  grown  tired  of  being  represented  by 
one  who  was  called  a  philosopher.  Some  other  prominent 
public  men  lost  their  seats.  Mr.  Eoebuck  was  defeated  in 
Sheffield.  His  defeat  was  partly  due  to  the  strong  stand  he 
had  made  against  the  trades-unions  ;  but  still  more  to  the 
bitterness  of  the  hostility  he  had  shown  to  the  Northern  States 
durinc:  the  American  Civil  War.  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  and  Mr. 
Bernal  Osborne  were  also  unseated.  The  latter  got  into  Par- 
liament again.  The  former  disappeared  from  public  life.  He 
had  done  good  service  at  one  time  as  an  ally  of  Cobden  and 
Bright.  Mr.  Lowe  was  elected  the  first  representative  of  the 
University  of  London,  on  which  the  Conservative  Keform  Bill 
had  conferred  a  seat.  Mr.  Disraeli  afterwards  humorously 
claimed  the  credit  of  having  enabled  Mr.  Lowe  to  carry  on 
his  public  career  by  providing  for  him  the  only  constituency 
in  England  which  would  have  accepted  him  as  its  represen- 
tative. This  was  the  first  general  election  with  household 
suffrage  in  boroughs  and  a  lowered  franchise  in  counties. 
Yet  curiously  enough  the  extreme  democratic  candidates, 
and  those  who  were  called  the  working-men's  candidates,  were 
in  every  instance  rejected.  The  new  Parliament  was  to  all 
appearance  less  marked  in  its  Liberalism  than  that  which  had 
gone  before  it.  But  so  far  as  mere  numbers  went  the  Liberal 
party  was  much  stronger  than  it  had  been.  In  the  new 
House  of  Commons  it  could  count  upon  a  majority  of  about 
120,  whereas  in  the  late  Parliament  it  had  but  60.  Mr. 
Gladstone  it  was  clear  would  now  have  everything  in  his  own 
hands,  and  the  country  might  look  for  a  career  of  energetic 
reform. 

While  the   debates   on  Mr.  Gladstone's  resolutions  wera 


348     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.    CH.  xxiM<, 

still  going  on,  there  came  to  England  the  news  that  Lord 
Brougham  was  dead.  He  had  died  at  Cannes  in  his  ninetieth 
year.  His  death  was  a  quiet  passing  away  from  a  world  that 
had  well-nigh  forgotten  him.  Seldom  has  a  political  career 
been  so  strangely  cut  short  as  that  of  Lord  Brougham.  From 
the  time  when  the  Whig  Administration  was  formed  without 
him,  he  seemed  to  have  no  particular  business  in  public  life. 
He  never  had  from  that  hour  the  slightest  influence  on  any 
political  party  or  any  political  movement.  His  restless  figure 
was  seen  moving  about  the  House  of  Lords  like  that  of  a  man 
who  felt  himself  out  of  place  there,  and  was  therefore  out  of 
humour  with  himself  and  his  company.  He  often  took  part 
in  debate,  and  for  many  years  he  continued  to  show  all  the 
fire  and  energy  of  his  earlier  days.  But  of  late  he  had  almost 
entirely  dropped  out  of  politics.  Happily  for  him  the  Social 
Science  Association  was  formed,  and  he  acted  for  a  long  time 
as  its  principal  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend.  He  made 
speeches  at  its  meetings,  presided  at  many  of  its  banquets,  and 
sometimes  showed  that  he  could  still  command  the  resources 
of  a  massive  eloquence.  The  men  of  the  younger  generation 
looked  at  him  with  interest  and  wonder  ;  they  found  it  hard 
to  realise  the  fact  that  only  a  few  years  before  he  was  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  and  energetic  figures  in  political  agita- 
tion. Now  he  seemed  oddly  like  some  dethroned  king  who 
occupies  his  leisure  in  botanical  studies ;  some  once  famous 
commander,  long  out  of  harness,  who  amuses  himself  with 
learning  the  flute.  There  were  perhaps  some  who  forgot 
Brougham  the  great  reformer  altogether,  and  only  thought  of 
Brougham  the  patron  and  orator  of  the  Social  Science  Asso- 
ciation. He  passed  his  time  between  Cannes,  which  he  may 
be  said  to  have  discovered,  and  London.  At  one  time  he  had 
had  the  idea  of  actually  becoming  a  citizen  of  France,  being 
of  opinion  that  it  would  set  a  good  example  for  the  brother- 
hood of  peoples  if  he  were  to  show  how  a  man  could  be  a 
French  and  an  English  citizen  at  the  same  moment.  He  had 
outlived  nearly  all  his  early  friends  and  foes.  Melbourne, 
Grey,  Durham,  Campbell,  Lyndliurst  had  passed  away.  The 
death  of  Lyndliurst  had  been  a  great  grief  to  him.  It  is  said 
that  in  his  failing,  later  years  he  often  directed  his  coachman 
to  drive  him  to  Lord  Lyndliurst's  house,  as  if  his  old  friend 
and  gossip  were  still  among  the  living.  At  last  Brougham 
began  to  give  unmistakable  signs  of  vanishing  intelligence. 
His   appearances  in  public  were  mournful   exhibitions.     He 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  349 

sometimes  sat  at  a  dinner-party  and  talked  loudly  to  him- 
self of  something  which  had  no  concern  with  the  time,  the 
place,  or  the  company.  His  death  created  but  a  mere  mo- 
mentary thrill  of  emotion  in  England.  He  had  made  bitter 
enemies  and  cherished  strong  hatreds  in  his  active  years  ;  and 
like  all  men  who  have  strong  hatreds,  he  had  warm  affections 
too.  But  the  close  friends  and  the  bitter  enemies  were  gone 
alike  ;  and  the  agitation  about  the  Irish  Church  was  sciircely 
interrupted  for  a  moment  by  the  news  of  his  death. 

The  Parliament  which  was  called  together  in  the  close  of 
1868  was  Imown  to  have  before  it  the  great  task  of  endeavour- 
ing to  govern  Ireland  on  the  principle  enunciated  by  Fox 
seventy  years  before — that  is,  according  to  Irish  ideas.  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  proclaimed  this  purpose  himself.  He  had  made 
it  known  that  he  would  endeavour  to  deal  with  Ireland's  three 
great  difficulties —the  State  Church,  the  tenure  of  land,  and  the 
system  ot  university  education.  Men's  minds  were  wrought  up 
to  the  enterprise.  The  country  v/as  in  a  temper  to  try  heroic 
remedies.  The  public  were  tired  of  government  which  merely 
tinkered  at  legislation,  putting  in  a  little  patch  here,  and 
stopping  up  for  the  moment  a  little  hole  there.  Perhaps, 
therefore,  there  was  a  certain  disappointment  as  the  general 
character  of  the  new  Parliament  began  to  be  understood. 
The  eminent  men  on  whom  all  eyes  turned  in  the  old  Par- 
liament were  to  be  seen  of  all  eyes  in  the  new.  It  was  clear 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  would  be  master  of  the  situation.  But 
there  did  not  seem  anything  particularly  hero-like  in  the 
general  aspect  of  the  new  House  of  Commons.  Its  com- 
position was  very  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  old.  Vast 
sums  of  money  had  been  spent  upon  the  elections.  Pdch  men 
were,  as  before,  in  immense  preponderance.  Elder  and 
younger  sons  of  great  families  were  as  many  as  ever.  The 
English  constituencies  under  the  new  suffrage  were  evi- 
dently no  whit  less  fond  of  lords,  no  whit  less  devoted  to 
wealth,  than  they  had  been  under  the  old.  Not  a  single  man 
of  extreme  democratic  opinions  had  a  seat  in  the  new  Houso 
of  Commons.  Where  any  marked  change  had  been  made  it 
showed  itself  in  removing  such  men  fi'om  Parliament  rather 
than  in  returning  them  to  it. 

Mr.  Disraeli  did  not  meet  the  new  Parliament  as  Prime 
Minister.  He  decided  very  properly  that  it  would  be  a  mere 
waste  of  public  time  to  wait  for  the  formal  vote  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  which  would  inevitable  command  him  to  sur- 


350    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     CH.  xxiii. 

render.  He  at  once  resigned  his  office,  and  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  immediately  sent  for  by  the  Queen,  and  invited  to  form 
an  Administration.  Mr.  Gladstone,  it  would  seem,  was  only 
beginning  his  career.  He  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  but 
there  were  scarcely  any  evidences  of  advancing  years  to  be 
seen  on  his  face,  and  he  had  all  the  fire  of  proud,  indomitable 
youth  in  his  voice  and  his  manner.  He  had  come  into  office 
at  the  head  of  a  powerful  party.  There  was  hardly  anything 
he  could  not  do  with  such  a  following  and  with  such  personal 
energy.  The  Government  he  formed  was  one  of  remarkable 
strength.  The  one  name  upon  its  list,  after  that  of  the  Prime 
Minister  himself,  which  engaged  the  interest  of  the  public, 
was  that  of  Mr.  Bright.  Mr.  Bright  had  not  sought  office, 
it  had  come  to  him.  It  was  impossible  that  a  Liberal 
ministry  could  now  be  foi-med  without  Mr.  Bright's  name 
appearing  in  it.  Mr.  Gladstone  at  first  offered  him  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State  for  India.  The  state  of  Mr.  Bright's 
health  would  not  allow  him  to  undertake  the  very  laborious 
duties  of  such  a  place,  and  probably  in  any  case  it  would  have 
been  repugnant  to  his  feelings  to  accept  a  position  which 
might  have  called  on  him  to  give  orders  for  the  undertaking 
of  a  war.  Every  man  in  a  Cabinet  is  of  course  responsible 
for  all  its  acts ;  but  there  is  still  an  evident  difference,  so  far 
as  personal  feeling  is  concerned,  between  acquiescing  in  some 
inevitable  policy  of  war  and  actually  directing  that  war  shall 
be  made.  The  position  of  President  of  the  jJoard  of  Trade 
was  that  which  had  been  offered  by  Lord  Palmerston  to  Mr, 
Bright's  old  friend,  Eichard  Cobden,  and  it  seemed  in  every 
way  well  suited  to  Mr.  Bright  himself.  Many  men  felt  a  doubt 
as  to  the  possibility  of  Mr.  Bright's  subduing  his  personal 
independence  and  his  outspoken  ways  to  the  discipline  and 
reticence  of  a  Cabinet,  and  Mr.  Bright  himself  appeared  to 
be  a  little  afraid  that  he  should  be  understood  as  thoroughly 
approving  of  every  measure  in  which  he  might,  by  ofiicial 
order,  feel  compelled  to  acquiesce.  He  cautioned  his  Birming- 
ham constituents  not  to  believe  that  he  had  changed  any  of  his 
opinions  until  his  own  voice  publicly  proclaimed  the  change, 
and  he  made  what  might  almost  be  called  an  appeal  to  them 
to  remember  that  he  was  now  one  man  serving  in  a  band  of 
men  ;  no  longer  responsible  only  for  himself,  no  longer  inde- 
pendent of  the  acts  of  others. 

Lord  Granville  was  Secretary  for  the  Colonies  under  tlie 
new    Administration;    Lord    Clarendon   Foreign    Secretary, 


CH.  xxiii.  IRISH  QUESTIONS,  35 1 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  was  entrusted  with  the  Indian  Office. 
Mr.  Cardwell,  to  all  appearance  one  of  the  coldest  and  least 
warlike  of  men,  was  made  Secretary  for  War,  and  had  in  his 
charge  one  of  the  greatest  reforms  of  the  administration.  Lord 
Hartington,  Lord  Dufferin,  Mr.  Childers,  and  Mr.  Bruce  had 
places  assigned  to  them.  Mr.  Layard  became  First  Com- 
missioner of  Public  Works.  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster  had  the  office 
of  Vice-President  of  the  Council,  and  came  in  for  work  hardly 
less  important  than  that  of  the  Prime  Minister  himself.  The 
Lord  Chancellor  was  Lord  Hatherley,  formerly  Sir  William 
Page  Wood.  Many  years  before,  when  Lord  Hatherley  was 
only  known  as  a  rising  man  among  advanced  Liberals,  and 
when  Mr.  Bright  was  still  regarded  by  all  true  Conservatives 
as  a  Kadical  demagogue,  Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Wood  were 
talking  of  the  political  possibilities  of  the  future.  Mr.  Bright 
jestingly  expressed  a  hope  that  whenever  he  came  to  be  member 
of  a  Cabinet,  Mr.  Wood  might  be  the  Lord  Chancellor. 
Nothing  could  then  have  seemed  less  likely  to  come  to  pass. 
As  Lord  Hatherley  and  Mr.  Bright  met  on  their  way  to 
Windsor  to  wait  on  the  Queen,  Mr.  Bright  reminded  his 
colleague  of  the  jest  that  had  apparently  been  prophetic. 

Mr.  Gladstone  went  to  work  at  once  with  his  Lish  policy. 
On  March  1, 1869,  the  Prime  Minister  introduced  his  measure 
for  the  disestablishment  and  partial  disendowment  of  the  Irish 
State  Church.  The  proposals  of  the  Government  were,  that  the 
Irish  Church  should  almost  at  once  cease  to  exist  as  a  State 
Establishment,  and  should  pass  into  the  condition  of  a  free 
Episcopal  Church.  As  a  matter  of  course  the  Irish  bishops 
were  to  lose  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords.  A  synodal, 
or  governing  body,  was  to  be  elected  from  the  clergy  and  laity 
of  the  Church  and  was  to  be  recognised  by  the  Government, 
and  duly  incorporated.  The  union  between  the  Churches  of 
England  and  Ireland  w^as  to  be  dissolved,  and  the  Irish  Eccle- 
siastical Courts  were  to  be  abolished.  There  were  various 
and  complicated  arrangements  for  the  protection  of  the  life 
interests  of  those  already  holding  positions  in  the  Irish 
Church,  and  for  the  appropriation  of  the  fund  which  would 
return  to  the  possession  of  the  State  when  all  these  interests 
had  been  fairly  considered  and  dealt  with.  It  must  be  owned 
that  the  Government  dealt  with  vested  interests  in  no  niggard 
spirit.  If  they  erred  at  all  they  erred  on  the  side  of  too  much 
generosity.  But  they  had  arrayed  against  them  adversaries 
80  strong  that  they  probably  felt  it  absolutely  necessary  to 


352    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XXIII, 

buy  off  some  of  the  opposition  by  a  liberal  compensation  to 
all  those  who  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  dignity  as  clergy- 
men of  a  State  Church.  When,  however,  all  had  been  paid 
off  who  could  establish  any  claim,  and  some  perhaps  who  had 
m  strict  fairness  no  claim  whatever,  there  remained  a  large 
fund  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government.  This  they  resolved 
to  set  apart  for  the  relief  of  unavoidable  suffering  in  Ireland. 

The  sum  to  be  disposed  of  was  very  considerable.  The 
gross  value  of  tiie  Irish  Church  property  was  estimated  at 
sixteen  millions.  From  this  sum  would  have  to  be  deducted 
nearly  five  millions  for  the  vested  interests  of  incumbents  ;  one 
million  seven  hundred  thousand  for  compensations  to  curates 
and  lay  compensations  ;  half  a  million  for  private  endowments; 
for  the  Mayijooth  Grant  and  the  Eegium  Donum  about  a 
million  and  a  quarter.  There  would  be  left  nearly  nine  mil- 
lions for  any  beneficent  purpose  on  which  the  Government 
and  the  country  could  make  up  their  minds.  The  Maynooth 
Grant  and  the  Eegium  Donum  were  to  go  with  the  Irish 
Church,  and  the  same  principle  of  compensation  was  to  be 
applied  to  those  w^ho  were  to  be  deprived  of  them.  The 
Regium  Donum  was  an  allowance  from  the  Sovereign  for  the 
maintenance  of  Presbyterian  ministers  in  Ireland.  It  was 
begun  by  Charles  II.  and  let  drop  by  James,  but  was  restored 
by  William  III.  William  felt  gratetul  for  the  support  given 
him  by  the  Presbyterians  in  Ireland  during  his  contest  with 
James,  and  indeed  had  little  preference  for  one  form  of  the 
Protestant  faith  over  another.  W^illiam,  in  the  first  instance, 
fixed  the  grant  as  a  charge  upon  tlie  customs  oi  Belfast. 
The  Maynooth  Grant  has  been  already  described  in  these 
pages.  J3oth  these  grants,  each  a  very  small  thing  in  itself, 
now  came  to  an  end,  and  the  principle  of  equality  among  the 
religious  denominations  of  Ireland  was  to  be  established. 

The  bill  was  stoutly  resisted  by  Mr.  Disraeli  and  his  party. 
They  resisted  it  as  a  whole,  and  they  also  fought  it  in  detail. 
They  proposed  amendment  after  amendment  in  committee,  and 
did  all  they  could  to  stay  its  progress  as  well  as  to  alter  some 
of  its  arrangements.  But  there  did  not  seem  to  be  much  of 
genuine  earnestness  in  the  speeches  made  by  Mr.  Disraeli. 
The  fact  that  resistance  was  evidently  hopeless  had  no  doubt 
some  effect  upon  the  style  of  his  eloquence.  His  speeches  were 
amusing  rather  than  impressive.  They  were  full  of  good 
points ;  they  sparkled  witli  happy  illustrations  and  allusions, 
odd  conceits  and  bewildering  paradoxes.    J5ut  the  orator  had 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS,  353 

evidently  no  faith  in  the  cause  he  advocated ;  no  faith,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  possibihty  of  its  success.  He  must  have  seen 
too  clearly  that  the  Church  as  a  State  establishment  in  Ireland 
was  doomed,  and  he  had  not  that  intensity  of  interest  in  its 
maintenance  which  would  have  made  him  fight  the  course,  as 
he  had  fought  many  a  course  before,  with  all  the  passionate 
eloquence  of  desperation.  One  of  his  lieutenants,  Mr.  Gathorne 
Hardy,  was  more  effective  as  a  champion  of  the  sinking  Irish 
Church  than  Mr.  Disraeli  proved  himself  to  be.  Mr.  Hardy 
was  a  man  so  constituted  as  to  be  only  capable  of  seeing  one 
side  of  a  question  at  a  time.  He  was  filled  with  the  convic- 
tion that  the  Government  were  attempting  an  act  of  spoliation 
and  sacrilege,  and  he  stormed  against  the  meditated  crime 
with  a  genuine  energy  which  occasionally  seemed  to  supply 
him  with  something  like  eloquence.  A  peculiar  interest  at- 
tached to  the  part  taken  in  the  debate  by  Sir  Eoundell  Palmer. 
It  was  natural  that  Sir  Eoundell  Palmer  should  be  with  Mr. 
Gladstone.  Everyone  expected  in  the  first  instance  that  he 
would  have  held  high  office  in  the  new  Administration.  He 
was  one  of  the  very  foremost  lawyers  and  the  best  Parliamen- 
tary debaters  of  the  day,  and  the  woolsack  seemed  to  be  his 
fitting  place.  But  Sir  Eoundell  Palmer  could  not  conscien- 
tiously agree  to  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  State  Church. 
He  was  willing  to  consent  to  very  extensive  alterations  and 
reductions  in  the  Establishment,  but  he  could  not  go  with 
Mr.  Gladstone  all  the  way  to  the  abolition  of  the  Church  ;  and 
he  therefore  remained  outside  the  Ministry,  and  opposed  the 
bill.  If  the  fate  of  the  Irish  Church  could  have  been  averted 
or  even  postponed  by  impassioned  eloquence  something  might 
have  been  done  to  stay  the  stroke  of  doom.  But  the  fate  of 
the  institution  was  sealed  at  the  moment  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
returned  from  the  general  elections  in  command  of  a  Liberal 
majority.  The  House  of  Lords  were  prudent  enough  not  to 
set  themselves  against  the  clear  declaration  of  national  opinion. 
Many  amendments  were  introduced  and  discussed  ;  and  some 
of  these  led  to  a  controversy  between  the  two  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  but  the  controversy  ended  in  compromise.  On  July  26, 
1869,  the  measure  for  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church 
received  the  royal  assent. 

Lord  Derby  did  not  long  survive  the  passing  of  the  measure 
which  he  had  opposed  with  such  fervour  and  so  much  pathetic 
dignity.  He  died  before  the  Irish  State  Church  had  ceased 
to  live.    Doomed  as  it  was,  it  outlasted  its  eloquent  champion. 


354     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES,     ch.  xxiil. 

In  the  interval  between  the  passing  and  the  practical  operation 
of  Mr.  Gladstone's  bill,  on  October  23,  Lord  Derby  died  at 
Knowsley,  the  residence  of  the  Stanleys  in  Lancashire.  His 
death  made  no  great  gap  in  English  politics.  He  had  for 
some  time  ceased  to  assert  any  really  influential  place  in  public 
affairs.  His  career  had  been  eminent  and  distinguished ;  but 
its  day  had  long  been  done.  Lord  Derby  never  was  a  states- 
man ;  he  was  not  even  a  great  leader  of  a  party  ;  but  he  was  a 
sjDlendid  figure-head  for  Conservatism  in  or  out  of  power.  He 
was,  on  the  whole,  a  superb  specimen  of  the  English  political 
nobleman.  Proud  of  soul,  but  sweet  in  temper  and  genial  in 
manner ;  dignified  as  men  are  who  feel  instinctively  that 
dignity  pertains  to  them,  and  therefore  never  think  of  how  to 
assert  or  to  maintain  it,  he  was  eminently  fitted  by  tempera- 
ment, by  nature,  lind  by  fortune  for  the  place  it  was  given  him 
to  hold.  His  parliamentary  oratory  has  already  become  a 
tradition.  It  served  its  purpose  admirably  for  the  time  ;  it 
showed,  as  Macaulay  said,  that  Lord  Derby  possessed  the  very 
instinct  of  parliamentary  debate.  It  was  not  weighted  with 
the  thought  which  could  have  secured  it  a  permanent  place  in 
political  literature,  nor  had  it  the  imagination  which  would 
have  lifted  it  into  an  atmosphere  above  the  level  of  Hansard. 
In  Lord  Derby's  own  day  the  unanimous  opinion  of  both 
Houses  of  Parliament  would  have  given  him  a  place  among 
the  very  foremost  of  parliamentary  orators.  Many  competent 
judges  went  so  far  as  to  set  him  distinctly  above  all  living 
rivals.  Time  has  not  ratified  this  judgment.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  influence  of  an  orator  could  have  faded  so  soon  if  he 
had  really  been  entitled  to  the  praise  which  many  of  his  con- 
temporaries would  freely  have  rendered  to  Lord  Derby.  The 
charm  of  his  voice  and  style,  his  buoyant  readiness,  his  rush- 
ing fluency,  his  rich  profusion  of  words,  his  happy  knack  of 
illustration,  allusion,  and  retort — all  these  hel])ed  to  make 
men  believe  him  a  much  greater  orator  than  he  really  was. 
Something,  too,  was  due  to  the  influence  of  his  position.  It 
seemed  a  sort  of  condescension  on  the  part  of  a  great  noble 
that  he  should  consent  to  be  an  eloquent  debater  also,  and 
to  contend  in  parliamentary  sword-play  against  professional 
champions  like  Peel  and  O'Connell  and  Brougham.  It  must 
count  for  something  in  Ijord  Derby's  fame  that,  while  far  in- 
ferior to  any  of  these  men  in  political  knowledge  and  in  mental 
capacity,  he  could  compare  as  an  orator  with  each  in  turn, 
and — were  it  but  for  his  own  day,  were  it  but  while  the  magic 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  355 

of  his  presence  and  his  voice  was  yet  a  living  influence  —could 
be  held  by  so  many  to  have  borne  without  disadvantage  the 
test  of  comparison. 

When  the  Irish  Church  had  been  disposed  of,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone at  once  directed  his  energies  to  the  Irish  land  system. 
Ireland  is  essentially  an  agricultural  country.  It  has  few 
manufactures,  not  many  large  towns.  Dublin,  Belfast,  Cork, 
Limerick,  Waterford — these  are  the  only  towns  that  could  be 
called  large  ;  below  these  we  come  to  places  that  in  most  other 
countries  would  be  spoken  of  as  villages  or  hamlets.  The 
majority  of  the  population  of  Ireland  live  on  the  land  and  by 
the  land.  The  condition  of  most  of  the  Irish  tenantry  may  be 
painted  effectively  in  a  single  touch  when  it  is  said  that  they  were 
tenants-at-will.  That  fact  would  of  itself  be  almost  enough 
to  account  for  the  poverty  and  the  misery  of  the  agricultural 
classes  in  Ireland.  But  there  were  other  conditions,  too,  which 
tended  the  same  way.  The  land  of  Ireland  was  divided  among 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  landlords,  and  the  landlords 
were,  as  a  rule,  strangers,  the  representatives  of  a  title  acquired 
by  conquest.  Many  of  them  were  habitual  absentees,  who 
would  as  soon  have  thought  of  living  in  Ashantee  as  in 
Munster  or  Connaught.  The  Irish  agricultural  population  held 
the  land  which  was  their  only  means  of  living  at  the  mercy  of 
the  landlord  or  his  agent.  They  had  no  interest  in  being  in- 
dustrious and  improving  their  land.  If  they  improved  the 
patch  of  soil  they  worked  on,  their  rent  was  almost  certain  to 
be  raised,  or  they  were  turned  out  of  the  land  without  receiving 
a  farthing  of  compensation  for  their  improvements.  Of  course 
there  were  many  excellent  landlords,  humane  and  kindly  men 
• — men,  too,  who  saw  the  wisdom  of  being  humane  and  kind. 
But  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  landlords  and  the  agents 
held  firmly  by  what  seemed  to  them  the  right  of  property — the 
right  to  get  as  high  a  price  for  a  piece  of  land  as  it  would  fetch 
in  open  competition.  The  demand  for  land  was  so  great,  the 
need  of  land  was  so  vital,  that  men  would  offer  any  price  for 
it.  When  the  tenant  had  got  hold  of  his  piece  of  land,  he  had 
no  idea  of  cultivating  it  to  the  best  of  his  strength  and  oppor- 
tunities. Why  should  he  ?  The  moment  his  holding  began 
to  show  a  better  appearance,  that  moment  he  might  look  to 
having  his  rent  raised,  or  to  being  turned  out  in  favour  of 
some  competitor  who  offered  higher  terms  for  occupation. 
Why  should  he  improve  ?  Whenever  ho  was  turned  out  of 
the  land  he  would  have  to  leave  his  unprovements  for  the 


356    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxill. 

benefit  of  the.  landlord  or  the  new  comer.  He  was,  therefore, 
content  to  scratch  the  soil  instead  of  really  cultivating  it.  He 
extracted  all  he  could  from  it  in  his  short  day.  He  lived  from 
hand  to  mouth,  from  hour  to  hour. 

In  one  province  of  Ireland,  indeed,  a  better  condition  of 
things  existed.  Over  the  greater  part  of  Ulster  the  tenant- 
right  system  prevailed.  This  system  was  a  custom  merely, 
but  it  had  gradually  come  to  acquire  something  like  the  force 
of  law.  The  principle  of  tenant-right  was  that  a  man  should 
be  allowed  to  remain  in  undisturbed  possession  of  his  holding 
as  long  as  he  paid  his  rent ;  that  he  should  be  entitled,  on 
giving  up  the  land,  to  compensation  for  unexhausted  improve- 
ments, and  that  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  sell  the  '  good-will ' 
of  his  farm  for  what  it  would  fetch  in  the  market.  The  tenant 
was  free  to  do  what  a  man  who  has  a  long  lease  of  any  holding 
may  do  ;  he  might  sell  to  any  bidder  of  whom  his  landlord 
approved  the  right  to  enter  on  the  occupancy  of  the  place. 
Wherever  this  tenant-right  principle  prevailed  there  was  in- 
dustry, there  was  prosperity ;  where  it  did  not  prevail  was 
the  domain  of  poverty,  idleness,  discontent,  and  crime.  The 
one  demand  of  the  Irish  agricultural  population  everywhere 
was  for  some  form  of  fixity  of  tenure.  The  demand  was 
neglected  or  refused  by  generations  of  English  statesmen, 
chiefly  because  no  statesman  would  take  the  trouble  to  distin- 
guish between  words  and  things  ;  between  shadowy,  pedantic 
theories  and  clear,  substantial  facts.  '  Tenant-right,'  said 
Lord  Palmerston,  amid  the  cheers  of  an  assembly  mainly 
composed  of  landlords,  '  is  landlord's  wrong.'  Lord  Palmer- 
ston forgot  that  the  landlord,  like  everyone  else  in  the  com- 
monwealth, holds  even  his  dearest  rights  of  property  subject 
to  the  condition  that  his  assertion  of  them  is  not  inconsistent 
with  the  general  weal.  The  landlord  holds  his  land  as  the 
shipowner  holds  his  ship  and  the  railway  company  its  lines  of 
rail ;  subject  to  the  right  of  the  State  to  see  that  the  duties  of 
possession  are  properly  fulfilled,  and  that  the  ownership  is 
not  allowed  to  become  a  public  danger  and  a  nuisance.  Land 
is,  from  its  very  nature,  from  the  fact  that  it  cannot  be  in- 
creased in  extent,  and  that  the  possession  by  one  man  is 
the  exclusion  of  another,  the  form  of  property  over  which 
the  State  would  most  naturally  be  expected  to  reserve  a  right 
of  ultimate  control.  Yet  English  statesmen  for  generations 
complacently  asserted  the  impossibility  of  any  legislative  in- 
terference with  the  right  of  the  landlord,  as  if  legislation  had 


en.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS,  357 

not  again  and  again  interfered  with  the  right  of  the  factory 
owner,  the  owner  of  mines,  the  possessor  of  railway  shares, 
the  shopkeeper ;  the  right  of  the  master  over  his  apprentice, 
the  mistress  in  the  hire  of  her  maid-of-all-work. 

If  ever  there  was  a  creature  of  law,  and  of  authority  acting 
m  the  place  of  law,  it  was  the  landlordism  of  Ireland.  It  was 
imposed  upon  the  country  and  the  people.  It  could  not  plead 
in  support  of  any  of  its  alleged  rights  even  that  prescriptive 
title  which  grows  up  with  the  growth  of  an  institution  that  has 
held  its  place  during  all  the  ages  to  which  tradition  or  memory 
goes  back.  The  landlordism  of  Ireland  was,  compared  with 
most  European  institutions,  a  thing  of  the  day  before  yester- 
day. It  was  the  creation  of  conquest,  the  impost  of  confiscation. 
It  could  plead  no  title  whatever  to  maintain  an  unlimited 
right  of  action  in  opposition  to  the  welfare  of  the  people  on 
whom  it  was  forced.  At  least  it  could  claim  no  such  title 
when  once  the  time  had  passed  away  which  insisted  that  the 
right  of  conquest  superseded  all  other  human  rights,  that  the 
tenant,  like  the  slave,  had  no  rights  which  his  master  was 
bound  to  respect,  and  that  the  common  weal  meant  simply 
the  interests  and  the  privileges  of  the  ruling  class.  The 
moment  the  title  of  the  Irish  land  system  came  to  be  fairly 
examined,  it  was  seen  to  be  full  of  flaws.  It  was  dependent 
on  conditions  that  had  never  been  fulfilled.  It  had  not  even 
made  the  landlord  class  prosperous.  It  had  not  even  suc- 
ceeded, as  no  doubt  some  of  its  founders  intended  that  it 
should  succeed,  in  colonising  the  island  with  English  and 
Scotch  settlers.  For  generations  the  land  tenure  system  of 
Ireland  had  been  the  subject  of  parliamentary  debate  and 
parliamentary  inquiry.  Nothing  came  of  all  this.  The  sup- 
posed right  of  the  landlord  stopped  the  way.  The  one  simple 
demand  of  the  occasion  was,  as  we  have  shown,  security  of 
tenure,  and  it  was  an  article  of  faith  with  English  statesman- 
ship until  Mr.  Gladstone's  time  that  security  for  the  tenant 
was  confiscation  for  the  landlord. 

Mr.  Gladstone  came  into  power  full  of  genuine  reforming 
energy  and  without  the  slightest  faith  in  the  economic  wisdom 
of  our  ancestors.  Li  a  speech  delivered  by  him  during  his 
electioneering  campaign  in  Lancashire,  he  had  declared  that 
the  Irish  upas-tree  had  three  great  branches :  the  State 
Church,  the  Land  Tenure  System,  and  the  System  of  Educa- 
tion, and  that  he  meant  to  hew  them  all  down  if  he  could. 
On  February  15,   1870,  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  Irish 


358    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiii. 

Land  Bill  into  the  House  of  Commons.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
measm^e  overthrew  once  for  all  the  doctrine  of  the  landlord's 
absolute  and  unlimited  right.  It  recognised  a  certain  pro- 
perty or  partnership  of  the  tenant  in  the  land  which  he  tilled. 
Mr.  Gladstone  took  the  Ulster  tenant-right  as  he  found  it, 
and  made  it  a  legal  institution.  In  places  where  the  Ulster 
practice,  or  something  analogous  to  it,  did  not  exist,  he  threw 
upon  the  landlord  the  burden  of  proof  as  regarded  the  right  of 
eviction.  The  tenant  disturbed  in  the  possession  of  his  land 
could  claim  compensation  for  improvements,  and  the  bill 
reversed  the  existing  assumption  of  the  law  by  presuming  all 
improvements  to  be  the  property  of  the  tenant,  and  leaving 
it  to  the  landlord,  if  he  could,  to  prove  the  contrary.  The 
bill  established  a  special  judicial  machinery  for  carrying  out 
its  provisions.  It  allowed  the  tribunals  thus  instituted  to  take 
into  consideration  not  merely  the  strict  legal  conditions  of 
each  case,  but  also  any  circumstances  that  might  affect  the 
claim  of  the  tenant  as  a  matter  of  equity.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
great  object  was  to  bring  about  a  state  of  things  by  virtue  of 
which  a  tenant  should  not  be  dispossessed  of  his  holding  so 
long  as  he  continued  to  pay  his  rent,  and  should  in  any  case 
be  entitled  to  full  compensation  for  any  substantial  improve- 
ments which  his  energy  or  his  capital  might  have  effected. 
Mr.  Gladstone,  however,  allowed  landlords,  under  certain 
conditions,  to  contract  themselves  out  of  the  provisions  of  the 
bill,  and  these  conditions  were  so  largely  availed  of  in  some 
parts  of  Ireland  that  there  were  more  evictions  after  the  bill 
had  become  law  than  before  it  had  yet  been  thought  of.  On 
this  ground  the  measure  was  actually  opposed  by  some  of  the 
popular  representatives  of  Ireland.  The  general  opinion,  how- 
ever, then  and  since  was,  that  the  bill  was  of  inestimable  value 
to  Ireland  in  the  mere  fact  that  it  completely  upset  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  legislation  had  always  previously 
dealt  with  Irish  land  tenure.  It  put  an  end  to  the  reign  of 
the  landlord's  absolute  power  ;  it  reduced  the  landlord  to  the 
level  of  every  other  proprietor,  of  every  other  man  in  the 
country  who  had  anything  to  sell  or  hire.  It  decided  once  for 
all  against  Lord  Palmerston's  famous  dogma,  and  declared 
that  tenant-right  was  not  landlord's  wrong.  Therefore  the 
new  legislation  might  in  one  sense  have  well  been  called  revo- 
lutionary. 

The    bill    passed    without    substantial    alteration.       On 
August  1, 1870,  the  bill  received  the  Eoyal  assent.  The  second 


CH.  XXIII.  IRISH  QUESTIONS.  359 

branch  of  the  upas-tree  had  been  hewn  down  ;  but  the  wood- 
man's axe  had  yet  to  be  laid  to  a  branch  of  a  tougher  fibre, 
well  calculated  to  turn  the  edge  of  even  the  best  weapon,  and 
to  jar  the  strongest  arm  that  wielded  it.  Mr.  Gladstone  had 
dealt  with  Church  and  land ;  he  had  yet  to  deal  with  univer- 
sity education.     He  had  gone  with  Irish  ideas  thus  far. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

•  EEFOEMATION    IN   A    FLOOD.* 

On  June  10,  1870,  men's  minds  were  suddenly  turned  away 
from  thought  of  political  controversy  to  a  country  house  near 
the  Gad's  Hill  of  Shakespeare,  on  the  road  to  Rochester,  where 
the  most  popular  author  of  his  day  was  lying  dead.  On  the 
evening  of  June  8,  Mr.  Dickens  became  suddenly  seized  with 
paralysis.  He  fell  into  an  unconscious  state  and  continued  so 
until  his  death,  the  evening  after.  The  news  was  sent  over 
the  country  on  the  10th,  and  brought  a  pang  as  of  personal 
sorrow  into  almost  every  home.  Dickens  was  not  of  an  age 
to  die  ;  he  had  scarcely  passed  his  prime.  Born  early  in 
February  1812,  he  had  not  gone  far  into  his  fifty-ninth  year. 
No  author  of  our  time  came  near  him  in  popularity  ;  perhaps 
no  English  author  ever  was  so  popular  during  his  own  life. 
To  an  immense  number  of  men  and  women  in  these  countries, 
Dickens  stood  for  literature  ;  to  not  a  few  his  cheery  teaching 
was  sufficient  as  philosophy  and  even  as  religion.  Soon  after 
his  death,  as  might  have  been  expected,  a  certain  reaction 
took  place,  and  for  a  while  it  became  the  fashion  to  smile 
quietly  at  Dickens's  teaching  and  his  influence.  That  mood 
too  will  have  its  day  and  will  pass.  It  may  be  safely  predicted 
that  Dickens  will  be  found  to  have  made  a  firm  place  in  Eng- 
lish literature,  although  that  place  will  probably  not  be  so 
hifrh  as  his  admirers  would  once  have  claimed  for  him. 
Londoners  were  familiar  with  Dickens's  personal  appearance 
as  well  as  with  his  writings,  and  certain  London  streets  did 
not  seem  quite  the  same  when  his  striking  face  and  energetic 
movements  could  be  seen  there  no  more.  It  is  likely  that 
Dickens  overworked  his  exuberant  vital  energy,  his  superb 
resources  of  phypical  health  and  animal  spirits.  In  work  and 
play,  in  writing  and  in  exercising,  he  was  unsparing  of  hia 


36o     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XXIV. 

powers.  Men  who  were  early  companions  of  his,  and  who 
had  not  half  his  vital  power,  outlived  him  many  years.  He 
was  bm-ied  in  Westminster  Abbey,  although  his  own  desire 
was  to  be  laid  quietly  in  Rochester  churchyard.  It  was  held 
that  the  national  cemetery  claimed  him.  We  cannot  help 
thinking  it  a  pity  the  claim  was  made.  Most  of  the  admirers 
of  Dickens  would  have  been  better  pleased  to  think  that  he 
lay  beneath  the  green  turf  of  the  ancient  churchyard,  in 
venerable  and  storied  Rochester,  amid  the  scenes  that  he 
loved  and  taught  so  many  others  to  love. 

Nothing  in  modern  English  history  is  like  the  rush  of  the 
extraordinary  years  of  reforming  energy  on  which  the  new 
Administration  had  now  entered.  Mr.  Gladstone's  Govern- 
ment had  to  grapple  with  five  or  six  great  questions  of  reform, 
any  one  of  which  might  have  seemed  enough  to  engage  the 
whole  attention  of  an  ordinary  Administration.  The  new 
Prime  Minister  had  pledged  himself  to  abolish  the  State 
Church  in  Ireland  and  to  reform  the  Irish  Land  Tenure  sys- 
tem. He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  put  an  end  to  the  purchase 
of  commissions  in  the  army.  Recent  events  and  experiences 
had  convinced  him  that  it  was  necessary  to  introduce  the 
system  of  voting  by  ballot.  He  accepted  for  his  Government 
the  responsibility  of  originating  a  complete  scheme  of  National 
Education.  Meanwhile,  there  were  many  questions  of  the 
highest  importance  in  foreign  policy  waiting  for  solution.  It 
required  no  common  energy  and  strength  of  character  to  keep 
closely  to  the  work  of  domestic  reform,  amid  such  exciting 
discussions  m  foreign  policy  all  the  while,  and  with  the  war- 
trumpet  ringing  for  a  long  time  in  the  ears  of  England. 

Mr.  Forster's  Education  Bill  may  be  said  to  have  been 
run  side  by  side  with  the  Irish  Land  Bill.  The  manner  in 
which  England  had  neglected  the  education  of  her  poor 
children  had  long  been  a  reproach  to  her  civilisation.  She 
was  behind  every  other  great  country  in  the  world  ;  she  was 
behind  many  countries  that  in  nowise  professed  to  be  great. 
For  years  the  statesmanship  of  England  had  been  kept  from 
any  serious  attempt  to  grapple  with  the  evil  by  the  doctrine 
that  popular  education  ought  not  to  be  the  business  of  a 
Government.  Private  charity  was  eked  out  in  a  parsimonious 
and  miserable  manner  by  a  scanty  dole  from  the  State  ;  and 
as  a  matter  of  course,  where  the  direst  poverty  prevailed,  and 
naturally  brought  the  extremest  need  for  assistance  to  educa- 
tion, there  the  wants  of  the  place  were  least  efficiently  sup- 


cii.  XXIV.  *  REFORMATION  IN  A   flood:  361 

plied.  It  therefore  came  about  that  more  than  two-thirds  of 
the  children  of  the  country  were  absolutely  without  instruc- 
tion. One  of  the  first  great  tasks  which  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Government  undertook  was  to  reform  this  condition  of  things, 
and  to  provide  England  for  the  first  time  in  her  history  with 
a  system  of  National  Education.  On  February  17,  1870, 
Mr.  Forster  introduced  a  bill,  having  for  its  object  to  provide 
for  public  elementary  education  in  England  and  Wales.  Mr. 
Forster  proposed  to  establish  a  system  of  School  Boards  in 
England  and  Wales  ;  and  to  give  to  each  board  the  power  to 
frame  bye-laws  compelling  the  attendance  of  all  children, 
from  five  to  twelve  years  of  age,  v/ithin  the  school  district. 
The  Government  did  not  see  their  way  to  a  system  of  direct 
and  universal  compulsion.  They  therefore  fell  back  on  a 
compromise,  by  leaving  the  power  to  compel  in  the  hands  of 
the  local  authorities.  Existing  schools  were,  in  many  in- 
stances, to  be  adopted  by  the  bill,  and  to  receive  Government 
aid,  on  condition  that  they  possessed  a  certain  amomit  of 
einciency  in  education,  that  they  submitted  themselves  to  the 
examination  of  an  undenominational  inspector,  and  that  they 
admitted  a  conscience  clause  as  part  of  their  regulations. 
The  funds  were  to  be  procured,  partly  by  local  rates,  partly 
by  grants  from  the  Treasury,  and  partly  by  the  fees  paid  in 
the  paying  schools.  There  were  of  course  to  be  free  schools 
provided,  where  the  poverty  of  the  population  was  such  as,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  local  authorities,  to  render  gratuitous,  in- 
struction indispensable. 

The  bill  at  first  was  favourably  received.  But  the  general 
harmony  of  opinion  did  not  last  long.  Mr.  Forster  found, 
when  he  came  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  machinery 
of  education  in  England,  that  there  was  already  a  system  of 
schools  existing  under  the  charge  of  religious  bodies  of  various 
kinds :  the  State  Church,  and  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church, 
and  other  authorities.  These  he  proposed  to  adopt  as  far  as 
possible  into  his  scheme  ;  to  affiliate  them,  as  it  were,  to  the 
Governmental  system  of  education.  But  he  had  to  make 
some  concession  to  the  religious  principles  on  which  such 
schools  were  founded.  He  could  not  by  any  stroke  of  autho- 
rity undertake  to  change  them  all  into  secular  schools.  He 
therefore  proposed  to  meet  the  difficulty  by  adopting  regula- 
tions compelling  every  school  of  this  kind  which  obtained 
Government  aid  or  recognition  to  accept  a  conscience  clause, 
by  means  of  which  the  religious  convictions  of  parents  and 
16 


362     A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiv. 

children  should  be  scrupulously  regarded  in  the  instruction 
given  during  the  regular  school  hours.  On  this  point  the 
Nonconformists  as  a  body  broke  away  from  the  Government. 
They  laid  down  the  broad  principle  that  no  State  aid  whatever 
should  be  given  to  any  schools  but  those  which  were  con- 
ducted on  strictly  secular  and  undenominational  principles. 
Their  principle  was  that  public  money,  the  contribution  of 
citizens  of  all  shades  of  belief,  ought  only  to  be  given  for  such 
teaching  as  the  common  opinion  of  the  country  was  agreed 
upon.  The  contribution  of  the  Jew,  they  argued,  ought  not 
to  be  exacted  in  order  to  teach  Christianity  ;  the  Protestant 
ratepayer  ought  not  to  be  compelled  to  pay  for  the  instruction 
of  Eoman  Catholic  children  in  the  tenets  of  their  faith ;  the 
Irish  Catholic  in  London  or  Birmingham  ought  not  to  be 
called  upon  to  pay  in  any  way  for  the  teaching  of  distinctively 
Protestant  doctrine 

Mr.  Forster  could  not  admit  the  principle  for  which  they 
contended.  He  could  not  say  that  it  would  be  a  fair  and 
equal  plan  to  offer  secular  education,  and  that  alone,  to  all 
bodies  of  the  community ;  for  he  was  well  aware  that  there 
were  such  bodies  who  were  conscientiously  opposed  to  what 
was  called  secular  education,  and  who  could  not  agree  to 
accept  it.  He  therefore  endeavoured  to  establish  a  system 
which  should  satisfy  the  consciences  of  all  the  denominations. 
But  the  Nonconformists  would  not  meet  him  on  this  ground. 
They  fought  Mr.  Forster  long  and  ably  and  bitterly.  The 
Liberal  minister  was  compelled  to  accept  more  than  once  the 
aid  of  the  Conservative  party ;  for  that  party  as  a  whole 
adopted  the  principle  which  insisted  on  religious  instruction 
in  every  system  of  national  education.  It  more  than  once 
happened,  therefore,  that  Mr.  Forster  and  Mr.  Gladstone 
found  themselves  appealing  to  the  help  of  Conservatives  and 
of  Eoman  Catholics  against  that  dissenting  body  of  English- 
men who  were  usually  the  main  support  of  the  Liberal  party. 
It  happened  too,  very  unfortunately,  that  at  this  time  Mr. 
Bright's  health  had  so  far  given  way  as  to  compel  him  to  seek 
complete  rest  from  parliamentary  duties.  His  presence  and 
his  influence  with  the  Nonconformists  might  perhaps  have 
tended  to  moderate  their  course  of  action,  and  to  reconcile 
them  to  the  policy  of  the  Government  even  on  the  subject  of 
national  education  ;  but  his  voice  was  silent  then,  and  for 
long  after,  The  split  between  the  Government  and  the  Non- 
conformists became   something  like   a  complete   severance. 


CH.  XXIV.  PREFORMATION  IN  A   FLOOD:  363 

Many  angry  and  bitter  words  were  spoken  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  both  sides.  On  one  occasion,  there  was  an 
ahnost  absolute  declaration  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
of  Mr.  Miall,  a  leading  Nonconformist,  that  they  had  parted 
company  for  ever.  The  Education  Bill  was  nevertheless  a 
gi'eat  success.  The  School  Boards  became  really  valuable 
and  powerful  institutions,  and  the  principle  of  the  cumulative 
vote  was  tested  for  the  first  time  in  their  elections.  When 
School  Boards  were  first  established  in  the  great  cities,  their 
novelty  and  the  evident  importance  of  the  work  they  had  to 
do,  attracted  to  them  some  of  the  men  of  most  commanding 
intellect  and  position.  The  London  School  Board  had  as  its 
chairman,  for  instance.  Lord  Lawrence,  the  great  Lidian 
statesman,  lately  a  Viceroy,  and  for  one  of  its  leading  members 
Professor  Huxley.  An  important  peculiarity  of  the  SchobT 
Boards  too,  was  the  fact,  that  they  admitted  women  to  the 
privileges  of  membership ;  and  this  admission  was  largely 
availed  of.  Women  voted,  proposed  amendments,  sat  on 
committees,  and  in  every  way  took  their  part  of  the  duties  of 
citizenship  in  the  business  of  national  education.  When  the 
novelty  of  the  system  wore  off,  some  of  the  more  eminent  men 
gradually  fell  out  of  the  work,  but  the  School  Boards  never 
failed  to  maintain  a  high  and  useful  standard  of  membership. 
They  began  and  continued  to  be  strictly  representative  insti- 
tutions. Most  of  their  work  even  still  remains  to  be  done. 
But  so  far  as  it  has  gone,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  success 
it  has  achieved.  It  must,  however,  be  owned  that  the  Glad- 
stone administration  was  weakened  and  not  strengthened  by 
its  education  scheme.  One  of  the  first  symptoms  of  coming 
danger  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government  was  fomid  in  the 
estrangement  of  the  English  Nonconformists. 

The  Government  were  a  little  unfortunate  too  as  regarded 
another  great  reform — that  of  the  organisation  of  the  army. 
Mr.  Cardwell,  the  War  Minister,  brought  forward  a  scheme 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  army,  by  combining  under  one 
system  of  discipline  the  regular  troops,  the  militia,  the  volun- 
teers, and  the  reserve.  One  most  important  part  of  the 
scheme  was  the  abolition  of  the  purchase  system  for  officers' 
commissions,  and  the  substitution  of  promotion  according  to 
merit.  Except  in  certain  regiments,  and  in  certain  branches 
of  the  service  outside  England  itself,  the  rule  was,  that  an 
officer  obtained  his  commission  by  purchase.  Promotion  was 
got  ii;   the  same  way.     An  officer  bought  a  step  up  in  the 


364    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ca.  xxiv. 

service.  A  commission  was  a  vested  interest ;  a  personal 
property.  The  owner  had  paid  so  much  for  it,  and  he  ex- 
pected to  get  so  much  for  it  when  he  thought  fit  to  sell  it. 
The  regulation  price  recognised  by  law  and  the  Horse  Guards 
was  not  by  any  means  the  actual  price  of  the  commission.  It 
became  worth  much  more  to  the  holder,  and  of  course  he 
expected  to  get  its  real  price,  not  its  regulation,  or  nominal 
and  imaginary  price.  This  anomalous  and  extraordinary 
system  had  grown  up  with  the  growth  of  the  English  army, 
until  it  seemed  in  the  eyes  of  many  an  essential  condition  of 
the  army's  existence.  It  found  defenders  almost  everywhere. 
Because  the  natural  courage,  energy,  and  fighting  power  o\ 
Englishmen,  Irishmen,  and  Scotchmen  had  made  a  good  army 
in  spite  of  this  unlucky  practice,  because  the  army  did  not 
actually  collapse  or  wither  away  under  its  influence,  many 
men  were  convinced  that  the  army  could  not  get  on  without 
it.  The  abolition  of  the  purchase  system  had  been  advocated 
by  generations  of  reformers  without  much  success.  But  the 
question  did  not  become  really  pressing  and  practical  until 
Mr.  Gladstone,  on  his  accession  to  power,  resolved  to  include 
it  in  his  list  of  reforms.  Of  course  Mr.  Cardwell's  proposition 
was  bitterly  and  pertinaciously  opposed.  The  principle  of 
army  purchase  was  part  of  a  system  in  which  large  numbers 
of  the  most  influential  class  had  a  vested  interest.  It  was 
part  of  the  aristocratic  principle.  To  admit  men  to  commis- 
sions in  the  army  by  pure  merit  and  by  mere  competition 
would  be  to  deprive  the  service  of  its  specially  aristocratic 
character.  A  large  number  of  the  Conservative  party  set 
themselves,  therefore,  not  merely  to  oppose  but  to  obstruct 
the  bill.  They  proposed  all  manner  of  amendments,  and 
raised  all  manner  of  discussions,  in  which  the  same  arguments 
were  repeated  over  and  over  again  by  the  same  speakers  in 
almost  the  same  words.  Men  who  had  never  before  displayed 
the  slightest  interest  in  the  saving  of  the  public  money,  were 
now  clamorous  opponents  of  the  bill  on  the  ground  that  the 
abolition  of  purchase  would  render  necessary  the  outlay  of  a 
large  sum  for  compensation  to  officers  thus  deprived  of  their 
vested  interests.  This  outlay  the  Liberal  Government,  usually 
censured  by  their  opponents  on  the  ground  of  their  pinching 
parsimony,  were  quite  willing  to  meet.  Mr.  Cardwell  was 
prepared  to  make  provision  for  it.  Economy,  however, 
became  suddenly  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the  Con- 
servatives.   The  session  was  going  on,  and  there  seemed  little 


CH.  XXIV..  REFORMATION  IN  A  FLOOD*  365 

prospect  of  the  Opposition  being  discouraged  or  slackening  in 
their  energy.  The  Government  began  to  see  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  carry  through  the  vast  and  complicated  scheme 
of  army  reorganisation  which  they  had  introduced,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  resolved  that  the  system  of  purchase  must 
come  to  an  end.  It  was  thought  expedient  at  last,  and  while 
the  bill  was  still  fighting  its  way  through  committee,  to 
abandon  a  great  part  of  the  measure  and  persevere  for  the 
present  only  with  those  clauses  which  related  to  the  abolition 
of  the  system  of  purchase.  Under  these  conditions  the  bill 
passed  its  third  reading  in  the  Commons  on  July  3,  1871, 
not  without  a  stout  resistance  at  the  last  and  not  by  a  very 
overwhelming  majority.  This  condition  of  things  gave  the 
majority  in  the  House  of  Lords  courage  to  oppose  the  scheme. 
A  meeting  of  Conservative  peers  was  held,  and  it  was  resolved 
that  the  Duke  of  Richmond  should  offer  an  amendment  to  the 
motion  for  the  second  reading  of  the  Army  Purchase  Bill. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond  was  exactly  the  sort  of  man  that  a 
party  under  such  conditions  would  agree  upon  as  the  proper 
person  to  move  an  amendment.  He  was  an  entirely  respect- 
able and  safe  politician  ;  a  man  of  great  influence  so  far  ag 
dignity  and  territorial  position  were  concerned  ;  a  seemingly 
moderate  Tory  who  showed  nothing  openly  of  the  mere  par- 
tisan and  yet  was  always  ready  to  serve  his  party.  When  the 
motion  for  the  second  reading  came  on,  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond moved  a  cleverly  constructed  amendment,  declaring  that 
the  House  of  Lords  was  unwilling  to  agree  to  the  motion 
until  a  comprehensive  and  complete  scheme  of  army  reorgani- 
sation should  have  been  laid  before  it.  But  of  course  the 
object  of  the  House  of  Lords  was  not  to  obtain  further  infor- 
mation ;  it  was  simply  to  get  rid  of  the  bill  for  the  present. 
The  amendment  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  was  adopted. 

Then  Mr.  Gladstone  took  a  course  which  became  the 
subject  of  keen  and  embittered  controversy.  Purchase  in 
the  army  was  permitted  only  by  Royal  warrant.  The  whole 
system  was  the  creation  of  Royal  regulation.  The  House  of 
Commons  had  pronounced  against  the  system.  The  House 
of  Lords  had  not  pronounced  in  favour  of  it.  The  House  of 
Lords  had  not  rejected  the  measure  of  the  Government,  but 
only  expressed  a  wish  for  delay  and  for  further  information. 
Delay  however  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  measure  for  that 
session.  Mr.  Gladstone  therefore  devised  a  way  for  check- 
mating what  he  knew  to  be  the  design  of  the  House  of  Lords, 


366    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiv. 

It  was  an  ingenious  plan ;  it  was  almost  an  audacious  plan ; 
it  took  the  listener's  breath  away  to  hear  of  it.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone announced  that  as  the  system  of  purchase  was  tho 
creation  of  Royal  regulation,  he  had  advised  tlie  Queen  to 
take  the  decisive  step  of  cancelling  the  Royal  warrant  which 
made  purchase  legal.  A  new  Royal  warrant  was  therefore 
immediately  issued,  declaring  that,  on  and  after  November  1 
following,  all  regulations  made  by  her  Majesty  or  any  of  her 
predecessors  regulating  or  fixing  the  prices  at  which  commis- 
sions might  be  bought,  or  in  any  way  authorising  the  purchase 
or  sale  of  such  commissions,  should  be  cancelled.  As  far  as 
regarded  purchase,  therefore,  the  controversy  came  suddenly 
to  an  end.  The  House  of  Lords  had  practically  nothing  to 
discuss.  All  that  was  left  of  the  Government  scheme  on  which 
the  Peers  could  have  anything  to  say  was  that  part  of  the 
bill  which  provided  compensation  for  those  whom  the  abolition 
of  the  system  of  purchase  would  deprive  of  certain  vested 
interests.  For  the  Lords  to  reject  the  bill  as  it  now  stood 
would  merely  be  to  say  that  such  officers  should  have  no 
compensation.  Astonishment  fell  upon  the  minds  of  most 
who  heard  Mr.  Gladstone's  determination.  After  a  moment 
of  bewilderment  it  was  received  with  a  wild  outburst  of 
Liberal  exultation.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  splendid  party  triumph. 
The  House  of  Lords  had  been  completely  foiled.  The  tables 
had  been  turned  on  the  Peers.  Nothing  was  left  for  the  House 
of  Lords  but  to  pass  the  bill  as  quickly  as  possible,  coupling  its 
passing,  however,  with  a  resolution  announcing  that  it  was 
passed  only  in  order  to  secure  to  officers  of  the  army  the 
compensation  they  were  entitled  to  receive,  and  censuring  the 
Government  for  having  attained,  *  by  the  exercise  of  the 
prerogative  and  without  the  aid  of  Parliament,'  the  principal 
object  which  they  contemplated  in  the  bill. 

The  House  of  Lords  was  then  completely  defeated.  The 
system  of  purchase  in  the  army  was  abolished  by  one  sudden 
and  clever  stroke.  The  Government  were  victorious  over 
their  opponents.  Yet  the  hearts  of  many  sincere  Liberals 
sank  within  them  as  they  heard  the  announcement  of  the 
triumph.  Mr.  Disraeli  condemned  in  the  strongest  terms 
the  sudden  exercise  of  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown  to  help 
the  Ministry  out  of  a  difficulty  ;  and  many  a  man  of  mark  and 
influence  on  the  Liberal  benches  felt  that  there  was  good 
ground  for  the  strictures  of  the  leader  of  the  Opposition.  Mr. 
Fawcett  in  particular  condemned  the  act  of  the  Government, 


CH.  XXIV.  ' REFORMATION  IN  A   flood:  367 

He  insisted  tliat  if  it  had  been  done  by  a  Tory  minister  it 
would  have  been  passionately  denounced  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
amid  the  plaudits  of  the  whole  Liberal  party.  Mr.  Fawcett 
was  a  man  who  occupied  a  remarkable  position  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  In  his  early  manhood  he  met  with  an  accident 
which  entirely  destroyed  the  sight  of  his  eyes.  He  made  the 
noble  resolve  that  he  would  nevertheless  follow  unflinchingly 
the  career  he  had  previously  mapped  out  for  hiii>self,  and 
would  not  allow  the  terrible  calamity  he  had  suffered  to  drive 
him  from  the  active  life  of  the  political  world.  His  tastes 
were  for  politics  and  political  economy.  He  published  a 
manual  of  political  economy  ;  he  wrote  largely  on  the  subject 
in  reviews  and  magazines ;  he  was  elected  Professor  of  the 
science  in  his  own  university,  Cambridge.  He  was  in  politics 
as  well  as  in  economics  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Mill ;  and  with  the 
encouragement  and  support  of  Mr.  Mill  he  became  a  candidate 
for  a  seat  in  Parliament.  He  was  a  Liberal  of  the  most 
decided  tone  ;  but  he  was  determined  to  hold  himself  inde- 
pendent of  party.  He  stood  for  Southwark  against  Mr.  Layard 
in  1857,  and  was  defeated ;  he  contested  Cambridge  and 
Brighton  at  subsequent  elections,  and  at  last  in  18G5  he  was 
successful  at  Brighton.  He  was  not  long  in  the  House  of 
Commons  before  it  was  acknowledged  that  his  political  career 
was  likely  to  be  something  of  a  new  force  in  Parliament.  A 
remarkably  powerful  reasoner,  he  was  capable  notwithstand- 
ing his  infirmity  of  making  a  long  speech  full  of  figures  and 
of  statistical  calculations.  His  memory  was  fortunately  so 
quick  and  powerful  as  to  enable  him  easily  to  dispense  with 
all  the  appliances  which  even  well-trained  speakers  commonly 
have  to  depend  upon  when  they  enter  into  statistical  contro- 
versy. In  Parliament  he  held  faithfully  to  the  purpose  with 
which  he  had  entered  it,  and  was  a  thorough  Liberal  in 
principles,  but  absolutely  independent  of  the  expedients  and 
sometimes  of  the  mere  discipline  of  party.  If  he  believed 
that  the  Liberal  ministers  were  going  wrong,  he  censured 
them  as  freely  as  though  they  were  his  political  opponents. 
On  this  occasion  he  felt  strongly  about  the  course  Mr.  Glad- 
stone had  taken,  and  he  expressed  himself  in  language  of 
unmeasured  condemnation.  It  seems  hard  to  understand  how 
any  independent  man  could  have  come  to  any  other  conclusion. 
The  exercise  of  the  Royal  prerogative  was  undoubtedly  legal. 
Much  time  was  wasted  in  testifying  to  its  legality.  The 
question  in  dispute  was  whether  its  sudden  introduction  iu 


S68    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiv. 

such  a  manner  was  a  proper  act  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment ;  whether  it  was  right  to  cut  short  by  virtue  of  the 
Queen's  prerogative  a  debate  which  had  previously  been  carried 
on  without  the  shghtest  intimation  that  the  controversy  was 
to  be  settled  in  any  other  way  than  that  of  the  ordinary 
Parliamentary  procedure.  There  seems  to  be  only  one  rea- 
sonable answer  to  this  question.  The  course  taken  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  unusual,  unexpected,  unsustained  by  any  pre- 
cedent ;  it  was  a  mere  surprise  ;  it  was  not  fair  to  the  House 
of  Lords  ;  it  was  not  worthy  of  the  occasion,  or  the  ministry, 
or  the  Liberal  principles  they  professed.  This  great  reform 
could  at  most  have  been  delayed  for  only  a  single  session  by 
the  House  of  Lords.  It  is  not  even  certain  that  the  House  of 
Lords,  if  firmly  met,  would  have  carried  their  opposition  long 
enough  to  delay  the  measure  by  a  single  session.  Li  any 
case  the  time  lost  would  not  have  counted  for  much ;  better 
by  far  to  have  waited  another  session  than  to  have  carried 
the  point  at  once  by  a  stroke  of  policy  which  seemed  impatient, 
petulant,  and  even  unfair.  Among  the  many  influences 
already  combining  to  weaken  Mr.  Gladstone's  authority, 
the  impression  produced  by  this  stroke  of  policy  was  not  the 
least  powerful. 

The  Ballot  Bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Forster  on  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1871.  Its  principal  object  was  of  course  the  intro- 
duction of  the  system  of  secret  voting.  On  entering  the 
polling-place,  the  voter  was  to  mention  to  the  official  in 
oliarge  his  name  and  his  place  of  residence.  The  official, 
having  ascertained  that  he  was  properly  on  the  register, 
would  hand  him  a  stamped  paper  on  which  to  inscribe  his 
vote.  The  voter  was  to  take  the  paper  into  a  separate  com- 
partment and  there  privately  mark  a  cross  opposite  the 
printed  name  of  the  candidate  for  whom  he  desired  to  re- 
cord his  vote.  He  was  then  to  fold  up  the  paper  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  prevent  the  mark  from  being  seen,  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  official,  drop  it  into  the  urn  for  containing  the 
votes.  By  this  plan  Mr.  Forster  proposed  not  only  to  obtain 
secrecy  but  also  to  prevent  personation.  The  bill  likewise 
undertook  to  abolish  the  old  practice  of  nominating  candidates 
publicly  by  speeches  at  the  hustings.  Instead  of  a  public 
nomination  it  was  intended  that  the  candidates  should  be  nomi- 
nated by  means  of  a  paper  containing  the  names  of  a  proposer 
and  seconder  and  eight  asscntors,  all  of  whom  must  bo  regis- 
tered   voters.     This   paper   being   handed   to    the   returning 


CH.  XXIV.  *  REFORMATION  IN  A   FLOOD:  369 

officer  would  constitute  a  nomination.  Thus  was  abolished 
one  of  the  most  characteristic  and  time- dishonoured  pecu- 
liarities of  electioneering.  Every  humorous  writer,  every 
satirist  with  pencil  or  pen,  from  Hogarth  to  Dickens,  had 
made  merry  with  the  scenes  of  the  nomination  day.  In 
England  the  candidates  were  proposed  and  seconded  in  face 
of  each  other  on  a  public  platform  in  some  open  street  or 
marketplace  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  tumultuous  crowd, 
three-fourths  of  whom  were  generally  drunk,  and  all  of  whom 
were  inflamed  by  the  passion  of  a  furious  partisanship. 
Fortunate  indeed  was  the  orator  whose  speech  was  anything 
more  than  dumb  show.  Brass  bands  and  drums  not  unusually 
accompanied  the  efforts  of  the  speakers  to  make  themselves 
heard.  Brickbats,  dead  cats,  and  rotten  eggs  came  flying 
like  bewildering  meteors  across  the  eyes  of  the  rival  politicians 
on  the  hustings.  The  crowds  generally  enlivened  the  time  by 
a  series  of  faction  fights  among  themselves.  No  ceremonial 
could  be  at  once  more  useless  and  more  mischievous. 

The  Bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Forster  would  have  deserved 
the  support  of  all  rational  beings  if  it  proposed  no  greater 
reform  than  simply  the  abolition  of  this  abominable  system. 
But  the  ballot  had  long  become  an  indispensable  necessity. 
The  gross  and  growing  corruption  and  violence  which  dis- 
graced every  election  began  to  make  men  feel  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  to  get  rid  of  such  hideous  abuses.  Mr, 
Bright  had  always  been  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  ballot 
system  ;  and  partly  no  doubt  under  his  influence,  and  partly  by 
the  teaching  of  experience  and  observation,  Mr.  Gladstone 
became  a  convert  to  the  same  opinion.  In  18G9  a  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons  was  appointed,  on  the  motion  of 
Mr.  Bruce,  the  Home  Secretary,  to  inquire  into  the  manner  of 
conducting  parliamentary  and  municipal  elections.  Its  report 
was  on  the  whole  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  principle  of  secret 
voting.  Public  opinion  came  round  to  the  principle  at  once — • 
the  public  out  of  doors  that  is ;  for  a  great  many  members 
of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  were  still  unconverted.  Mr. 
Forster's  Bill  was  stoutly  resisted  by  the  Conservatives.  A 
good  many  Liberal  members  liked  the  ballot  in  their  hearts 
little  better  than  the  Tories  did.  The  long  delays  which  inter- 
posed between  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Forster's  Bill  and  itg 
passing  through  the  House  of  Commons  gave  the  House  of 
Lords  a  plausible  excuse  for  rejecting  it  altogether.  The  Bill 
was  not  read  a  third  time  in  the  Commons  until  August  8 ;  it 

16* 


370    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiv. 

was  not  sent  up  to  the  Lords  until  the  10th  of  that  month — a 
date  later  than  that  usually  fixed  for  the  close  of  the  session. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  moved  that  the  Bill  be  rejected  on  the  ground 
that  there  was  no  time  left  for  a  proper  consideration  of  it, 
and  his  motion  was  carried  by  ninety- seven  votes  to  forty- eight. 
Mr.  Gladstone  accepted  the  decision  of  the  Lords  as  a  mere 
passing  delay,  and  with  the  beginning  of  the  next  session  the 
ballot  came  up  again.  It  was  presented  in  the  form  of  a  Bill 
to  amend  the  laws  relating  to  procedure  at  parliamentary  and 
municipal  elections,  and  it  included  of  course  the  introduction 
of  the  system  of  secret  voting.  The  Bill  passed  quickly  through 
the  House  of  Commons.  Those  who  most  disliked  it  began 
now  to  see  that  they  must  make  up  their  minds  to  meet  their 
fate.  At  the  instance  of  the  House  of  Lords  however  the 
ballot  was  introduced  as  an  experiment,  and  the  Act  was 
passed  to  continue  in  force  for  eight  years ;  that  is,  until  the 
end  of  1880.  We  may  anticipate  matters  a  little  by  saying 
that  no  measurer  of  reform  inirodiiced  through  all  that  season 
of  splendid  reforming  energy  has  given  more  universal  satis- 
faction or  worked  with  happier  effect  than  the  ballot. 

The  University  Tests  Bill  was  one  of  the  greatest  measures 
carried  successfully  into  legislation  during  this  season  of  un- 
paralleled activity.  The  effect  of  this  Bill  was  to  admit  all 
lay  students  of  whatever  faith  to  the  Universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  on  equal  terms.  This  settled  practically  a 
controversy  and  removed  a  grievance  which  had  been  attract- 
ing keen  public  interest  for  at  least  five-and-thirty  years.  The 
Government  also  passed  a  Trades  Union  Bill,  moderating,  as 
has  already  been  shown,  the  legislation  which  bore  harshly  on 
the  workmen.  They  established  by  Act  of  Parliament  the 
Local  Government  Board,  a  new  department  of  the  admini- 
stration entrusted  with  the  care  of  the  public  health,  the  con- 
trol of  the  Poor  Law  system,  and  all  regulations  applying  to 
the  business  of  districts  throughout  the  country.  The  Govern- 
ment repealed  the  ridiculous  and  almost  forgotten  Ecclesias- 
tical Titles  Bill. 

The  popularity  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government  was  all 
the  time  somewhat  impaired  by  the  line  of  action,  and  even 
perhaps  by  the  personal  deportment,  of  some  of  its  members, 
Mr.  Lowe's  budgets  were  not  popular ;  and  Mr.  Lowe  had  a 
taste  for  sarcasm  which  it  was  pleasant  no  doubt  to  indulge  in 
at  the  expense  of  heavy  men,  but  which  was,  like  other  plea- 
sant things,  a  little  dangerous  when  enjoyed  too  freely.     One 


CH.  XXIV.  'REFORMATION  IN  A   FLOOD:  371 

of  Mr.  Lowe's  budgets  contained  a  proposition  to  make  up  for 
deficiency  of  income  by  a  tax  on  matches.  The  match  trade 
rose  up  in  arms  against  the  proposal.  The  trade  was  really  a 
very  large  one,  employing  vast  numbers  of  poor  people,  both 
in  the  manufacture  and  the  sale,  especially  in  the  east  end  of 
London.  All  the  little  boys  and  girls  of  the  metropolis  whose 
poor  bread  depended  on  the  trade  arose  in  infantile  insur- 
rection against  Mr.  Lowe.  There  were  vast  processions  of 
match-makers  and  match-sellers  to  Palace  Yard  to  protest 
against  the  tax.  The  contest  was  pitiful,  painful,  ludicrous ; 
no  Ministry  could  endure  it  long.  Mr.  Lowe  was  only  too 
glad  to  withdraw  from  his  unenviable  position.  It  was  not 
pleasant  to  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  ogre  by  thousands  of  poor 
little  ragged  boys  and  girls.  Mr.  Lowe  withdrew  his  unlucky 
proposal,  and  set  himself  to  work  to  repair  by  other  ways  and 
means  the  ravages  which  warlike  times  had  made  in  his 
financial  system.  Another  member  of  the  Administration, 
Mr.  Ayrton,  a  man  of  much  ability  but  still  more  self-con- 
fidence, was  constantly  bringing  himself  and  his  Government 
into  quarrels.  He  was  blessed  with  a  gift  of  offence.  If  a 
thing  could  be  done  either  civilly  or  rudely,  Mr.  Ayrton  was 
pretty  sure  to  do  it  rudely.  He  was  impatient  with  dull  people, 
and  did  not  always  remember  that  those  unhappy  persons  not 
only  have  their  feelings,  but  sometimes  have  their  votes.  He 
quarrelled  with  officials  ;  he  quarrelled  with  the  newspapers  ; 
he  seemed  to  think  a  civil  tongue  gave  evidence  of  a  feeble 
intellect.  He  pushed  his  way  along,  trampling  on  people's 
prejudices  with  about  as  much  consideration  as  a  steam-roller 
shows  for  the  gravel  it  crushes.  Even  when  Mr.  Ayrton  was 
in  the  right  he  had  a  wrong  way  of  showing  it. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  had  made  war  upon  Prussia  to 
recover  his  military  popularity,  which  was  much  injured  by 
the  Mexican  expedition  and  its  ghastly  failure.  He  forced  the 
quarrel  on  the  pretext  that  the  Spanish  people  had  invited  a 
distant  relation  of  the  King  of  Prussia  to  become  Sovereign  of 
Spain.  Louis  Napoleon  managed  to  put  himself  completely 
in  the  wrong.  The  King  of  Prussia  at  once  induced  his  rela- 
tive to  withdraw  from  the  candidature  in  order  not  to  disturb 
the  susceptibilities  of  France ;  and  then  the  French  Govern- 
ment pressed  for  a  general  pledge  that  the  King  of  Prussia 
would  never  on  any  future  occasion  allow  of  any  similar  candi- 
dature. When  it  came  to  this,  there  was  an  end  to  negotiation. 
It  was  clear  then  that  the  Emperor  was  resolved  to  have  a 


372      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxiv. 

quarrel.  Count  Bismarck  must  have  smiled  a  grim  smile.  Hig 
enemy  had  delivered  himself  into  Bismarck's  hands.  The 
Emperor  had  been  for  some  time  in  failing  health.  He  had 
not  been  paying  much  attention  to  the  details  of  his  adminis- 
tration. False  security  and  self-conceit  had  operated  among 
his  generals  and  his  War  Department  to  the  utter  detriment 
of  the  army.  Nothing  was  ready.  The  whole  system  was 
falling  to  pieces.  Long  after  France  had  declared  war,  the 
army  that  was  to  go  to  Berlin  was  only  dragging  heavily 
towards  the  frontier.  The  experience  of  what  had  happened 
to  Austria  might  have  told  anyone  that  the  moment  Prussia 
saw  her  opportunity  she  would  move  with  the  direct  swiftness 
of  an  eagle's  flight.  But  the  French  army  stuck  as  if  it  was 
in  mud.  What  everyone  expected  came  to  pass.  The  Prus- 
sians came  down  on  the  French  like  the  rush  of  a  torrent. 
The  fortunes  of  the  war  were  virtually  decided  in  a  day.  Then 
the  French  lost  battle  after  battle.  The  Emperor  dared  not 
return  to  Paris.  The  defence — for  the  Prussians  soon  became 
the  invaders — was  carried  on  with  regard  to  the  Emperor's 
political  fortunes  rather  than  to  the  military  necessities  of  the 
hour.  There  were  nothing  but  French  defeats  until  there 
came  at  last  the  crowning  disaster  of  Sedan.  The  Emperor 
surrendered  his  sword,  and  was  a  captive  in  the  hands  of 
his  enemies.  The  Second  Empire  was  gone  in  a  moment. 
Paris  proclaimed  the  Eepublic ;  the  Empress  Eugenie  fled  to 
England ;  the  conqueror  at  Versailles  was  hailed  as  German 
Emperor.  France  lost  two  provinces,  Alsace  and  Lorraine, 
and  had  to  pay  an  enormous  fine. 

The  sympathies  of  the  English  people  generally  were  at 
first  almost  altogether  with  Prussia.  But  when  the  Empire 
fell  the  feeling  suddenly  changed.  It  was  the  common  idea  that 
the  Prussians  ought  io  have  been  content  with  the  complete 
destruction  of  the  Bonapartist  Empire  and  have  made  generous 
terms  with  the  Eepublic.  Great  popular  meetings  were  held  in 
London,  and  in  various  provincial  cities,  to  express  sympathy 
with  the  hardly- entreated  French.  Many  persons  everywhere 
thought  the  Government  ought  to  do  something  to  assist  the 
French  Eepublic.  Some  were  of  opinion  that  the  glory  of 
England  would  suffer  if  she  did  not  get  into  a  fight  with 
some  Power  or  other.  It  came  out  in  the  course  of  the 
eager  diplomatic  discussions  which  were  going  on  that  there 
had  been  some  secret  talk  at  different  times  of  a  private 
engagement  between  France  and  Prussia  which  would  have 


CH.  XXIV.  '■REFORMATION  IN  A   FLOOD*  373 

allowed  France  on  certain  conditions  to  annex  Belgium.  This 
astounding  revelation  excited  alarm  and  anger  in  England. 
The  Government  met  that  possible  danger  by  at  once  pressing 
upon  France  and  Prussia  a  new  treaty,  by  which  these  Powers 
bound  themselves  jointly  with  England  to  maintain  the  inde- 
pendence of  Belgiun?  and  to  take  up  arms  against  any  State 
invading  it.  The  Government  might  fairly  claim  to  have  thus 
provided  satisfactorily  against  any  menace  to  the  integrity  and 
independence  of  Belgium,  and  they  prepared  against  the  more 
general  dangers  of  the  hour  by  asking  for  a  large  vote  to  enable 
them  to  strengthen  the  military  defences  of  the  country.  But 
they  were  seriously  embarrassed  by  the  manner  in  which 
Eussia  suddenly  proposed  to  deal  with  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 
One  article  of  that  Treaty  declared  that  *  the  Black  Sea  is 
neutralised ;  its  waters  and  its  ports,  thrown  open  to  the  mer- 
cantile marine  of  every  nation,  are  formally  and  in  perpetuity 
interdicted  to  the  flag  of  war,  either  of  the  Powers  possessing 
its  coasts  or  of  any  other  Power,'  and  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
and  the  Emperor  of  Piussia  engaged  to  establish  or  maintain 
no  military  or  maritime  arsenals  on  the  shores  of  that  sea. 
Eussia  now  took  advantage  of  the  war  between  France  and 
Prussia  to  say  that  she  would  not  submit  to  be  bound  by  that 
article  of  the  Treaty  any  longer.  The  Kussian  statesmen 
pleaded  as  a  justification  of  this  blunt  and  sudden  proceeding 
that  the  Treaty  of  Paris  had  been  ignored  by  other  Powers 
and  in  a  variety  of  ways  since  the  time  of  its  signature,  and 
that  Russia  could  not  be  expected  to  endure  for  ever  an  article 
which  bore  heavily,  directly,  and  specially  upon  her. 

The  manner  of  making  the  announcement  was  startling, 
Dminous,  and  offensive.  But  there  really  was  not  much  that 
any  English  statesman  could  do  to  interfere  with  Russia's 
declared  intentions.  It  was  not  likely  that  France  and  Prussia 
would  stop  just  then  from  the  death-grapple  in  which  they 
were  engaged  to  join  in  coercing  Russia  to  keep  to  the  disputed 
article  in  the  Treaty.  Austria  of  course  would  not  mider  such 
circumstances  undertake  to  interfere.  It  would  have  been  a 
piece  of  preposterous  quixotry  on  the  part  of  England  to  act 
alone.  To  enforce  the  Treaty  was  out  of  the  question  ;  but 
on  the  other  hand  it  did  not  look  seemly  that  the  European 
powers  should  put  up  quite  tamely  with  the  dictatorial  resolve 
of  Russia.  The  ingenious  mind  of  Count  Bismarck  found  a 
way  of  putting  a  fair  show  on  the  action  of  Europe.  At  liis 
suggestion  a  conference  of  the  representatives  of  the  powers 


374     ^  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxiv. 

wliicli  had  signed  the  Treaty  was  held  in  London  to  talk  the 
whole  matter  over.  This  graceful  little  fiction  was  welcomed 
by  all  diplomatists.  The  conference  met  on  January  17, 1871, 
with  every  becoming  appearance  of  a  full  belief  in  the  minds 
of  all  its  members  that  the  Eussian  Government  had  merely 
announced  its  wish  to  have  the  clause  in  the  Treaty  abrogated 
as  a  matter  for  the  consideration  of  the  European  powers,  and 
that  the  conference  was  to  be  assembled  *  without  any  foregone 
conclusion  as  to  its  results.'  Then  the  conference  solemnly 
agreed  upon  a  Treaty  abrogating  the  clause  lor  the,  neutra- 
lisation of  the  Black  Sea.  There  was  something  a  little 
farcical  about  the  whole  transaction.  It  did  not  tend  to  raise 
the  credit  or  add  to  the  popularity  of  the  English  Government. 
We  do  not  know  that  there  was  anything  better  to  do  ;  we 
can  only  say  that  the  Government  deserves  commiseration 
which  at  an  important  European  crisis  can  do  nothing  better. 
The  American  Government  now  announced  that  the  timo 
had  come  when  they  must  take  some  decided  steps  for  the 
settlement  of  the  Alabama  claims.  Attempts  had  already 
been  made  at  a  convention  for  the  settlement  of  the  claims. 
In  one  instance  a  convention,  devised  by  Mr.  Eeverdy  Johnson, 
then  American  Minister  in  England,  had  actually  been  signed 
by  Lord  Clarendon,  Foreign  Secretary,  whose  death  in  June 
1870  was  followed  by  Lord  Granville's  removal  from  the 
Colonial  to  the  Foreign  Office.  The  Senate  of  the  United 
States  however  rejected  this  convention  by  a  majority  of 
fifty-four  to  one,  and  Mr.  Reverdy  Johnson  resigned  his 
office.  The  doom  of  the  convention  was  chiefly  brought 
about  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Charles  Sumner,  a  leading  mem- 
ber of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Sumner  was 
a  man  of  remarkable  force  of  character,  a  somewhat  '  master- 
ful '  temperament,  to  use  an  expressive  provincial  word,  a 
temperament  corresponding  with  his  great  stature,  his  stately 
presence,  and  his  singularly  handsome  and  expressive  face. 
Mr.  Sumner  had  been  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life  an  en- 
thusiastic admirer  of  Enf^iand  and  Ensflish  institutions.  Ho 
had  made  himself  acquainted  with  England  and  Englishmen, 
and  was  a  great  favourite  in  English  society.  He  was  a 
warm  friend  of  Mr.  Cobden,  Mr.  Bright,  the  Duke  of  Argyll, 
and  many  other  eminent  English  public  men.  He  was  par- 
ticularly enthusiastic  about  England  because  of  the  manner 
in  which  she  had  emancipated  her  slaves  and  the  emphatic 
ttims  in  which  EngUsh  society  always  expressed  its  horroi 


CH.  XXIV.  'REFORMATION  IN  A   flood:  375 

of  the  system  of  slavery.  When  the  American  Civil  War 
broke  out  he  expected  with  full  confidence  to  find  the  sym- 
pathies of  England  freely  given  to  the  side  of  the  North.  He 
was  struck  with  amazement  when  he  found  that  they  were 
to  so  great  an  extent  given  to  the  South.  But  when  he  saw 
that  the  Alabama  and  other  Southern  cruisers  had  been  built  in 
England,  manned  in  England,  and  allowed  to  leave  our  ports 
with  apparently  the  applause  of  three-fourths  of  the  repre- 
sentative men  of  England,  his  feelings  towards  this  country 
underwent  a  sudden  and  a  most  complete  change.  He  now 
persuaded  himself  that  the  sympathies  of  the  English  people 
were  actually  with  slavery,  and  that  England  was  resolved 
to  lend  her  best  help  for  the  setting  up  of  a  slave- owning 
Republic  to  the  destruction  of  the  American  Union. 

Mr.  Sumner  was  mistaken  in  concluding  that  love  of 
slavery  and  hatred  of  the  Union  dictated  the  foolish  things 
that  were  often  said  and  the  unrightful  things  that  were 
sometimes  done  by  England.  His  mind,  however,  became 
filled  with  a  fervour  of  anger  against  England.  The  zeal  of 
his  cause  ate  him  up.  All  his  love  for  England  turned  into 
hate.  During  all  his  career,  Mr.  Sumner  had  been  a  pro- 
fessed lover  of  peace  ;  had  made  peace  his  prevailing  principle 
of  action ;  and  yet  he  now  spoke  and  acted  as  if  he  were 
determined  that  there  must  be  war  between  England  and  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Sumner  denounced  the  convention  made 
by  Mr.  Reverdy  Johnson  with  a  force  of  argument  and  of 
passionate  eloquence  which  would  have  borne  down  all  oppo- 
sition if  the  Senate  had  not  already  been  almost  mianimously 
with  him.  It  is  right  to  say  that  the  particular  convention 
agreed  on  between  Lord  Clarendon  and  Mr.  Reverdy  Johnson 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  one  that  the  American  Senate 
could  reasonably  be  expected  to  accept,  or  that  could  possibly 
give  satisfaction  to  the  American  people.  The  defect  of  this 
convention  was  that  it  made  the  whole  question  a  mere 
matter  of  individual  claims.  It  professed  to  have  to  deal 
with  a  number  of  personal  and  private  claims  of  various 
kinds,  pending  since  a  former  settlement  in  1853 — claims 
made  on  the  one  side  by  British  subjects  against  the  American 
Government,  and  on  the  Other  by  American  citizens  against 
the  English  Government  ;  and  it  proposed  to  throw  in  the 
Alabama  claims  with  all  the  others,  and  have  a  convention 
for  the  general  clearance  of  the  whole  account.  The  claim 
set   up  by  the   United  States,    on  account  of  the  cruise  of 


376      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch,  xxiv, 

the  Alabama,  was  first  of  all  a  national  claim,  and  this  way 
of  dealing  with  it  could  not  possibly  satisfy  the  American 
people. 

The  English  Government  wisely  gave  way.  They  con- 
sented to  send  out  a  commission  to  Washington  to  confer  with 
an  American  Commission,  and  to  treat  the  whole  question  in 
dispute  as  national  and  not  merely  individual.  The  Commis- 
sion was  to  enter  upon  all  the  various  subjects  of  dispute 
unsettled  between  England  and  the  United  States;  ilie  Ala- 
hama  claims,  the  San  Juan  Boundary,  and  the  Canadian 
Fishery  Question.  The  Dominion  of  Canada  was  to  be  repre- 
sented on  the  Commission.  The  English  Commissioners 
were  Earl  de  Grey  and  Kipon  (afterwards  created  Marquis  of 
Ripon,  in  return  for  his  services  at  Washington),  Sir  Stafford 
Northcote,  Mr.  Mountague  Bernard,  Professor  of  International 
Law  at  the  University  of  Oxford  ;  and  Sir  Edward  Thornton, 
English  Minister  at  Washington.  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald 
represented  Canada.  The  American  Commissioners  were 
Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  Secretary  of  State ;  General  Schenck, 
afterwards  American  Minister  in  England ;  Mr.  J.  C.  Ban- 
croft Davis,  Mr.  Justice  Nelson,  Mr.  Justice  Williams,  and 
Mr.  E.  R.  Hoar. 

The  Commissioners  held  a  long  series  of  meetings  in  Wash- 
ington, and  at  length  arrived  at  a  basis  of  arbitration.  The 
Treaty  of  Washington  acknowledged  the  international  cha- 
racter of  the  dispute,  and  it  opened  with  the  remarkable 
announcement  that  '  Her  Britannic  Majesty  has  authorised 
her  High  Commissioners  and  Plenipotentiaries  to  express,  in 
a  friendly  spirit,  the  regret  felt  by  Her  Majesty's  Government 
for  the  escape,  under  whatever  circumstances,  of  the  Alabama 
and  other  vessels  from  British  ports,  and  for  the  depredations 
committed  by  those  vessels.'  This  very  unusual  acknow- 
ledgment ought  not  in  itself  to  be  considered  as  anything  of  a 
humiliation.  But  when  compared  with  the  stand  which  Eng- 
lish Ministers  had  taken  not  many  years  before,  this  was 
indeed  a  considerable  change  of  attitude.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  many  Englishmen  chafed  at  the  appearance  of  submission 
which  it  presented.  The  Treaty  then  laid  down  three  rules. 
These  rules  were  :  *  A  neutral  Government  is  bound  :  first,  to 
use  due  diligence  to  prevent  the  fitting-out,  arming,  or  equip- 
ping, within  its  jurisdiction,  of  any  vessel  which  it  has  reason- 
able ground  to  believe  is  intended  to  cruise  or  to  carry  on  war 
against  a  Power  with  which  it  is  at  peace,  and  also  to  use  like 


CH.  XXIV.  PREFORMATION  IN  A  FLOODS  377 

diligence  to  prevent  tlie  departure  from  its  jurisdiction  of  any 
vessel  intended  to  cruise  or  carry  on  war  as  above,  such  vessel 
having  been  specially  adapted  in  whole  or  in  part,  within  such 
jurisdiction,  to  warlike  use.  Secondly,  not  to  permit  or  suffer 
either  belligerent  to  make  use  of  its  ports  or  waters  as  the  base 
of  naval  operations  against  the  other,  or  for  the  purpose  of  the 
renewal  or  augmentation  of  military  supplies  or  arms,  or  the 
recruitment  of  men.  Thirdly,  to  exercise  due  diligence  in  its 
own  ports  and  waters,  and  as  to  all  persons  within  its  juris- 
diction, to  prevent  any  violation  of  the  foregoing  obligations 
and  duties.' 

The  British  Commissioners  followed  up  the  acceptance  of 
these  three  rules  by  a  saving  clause,  declaring  that  the  Eng- 
lish Government  could  not  assent  to  them  as  a  '  statement  of 
principles  of  international  law  which  were  in  force  at  the  time 
when  the  claims  arose ; '  but  that  *  in  order  to  evince  its  desire 
of  strengthening  the  friendly  relations  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, and  of  making  satisfactory  provision  for  the  future,'  it 
agreed  that  in  deciding  the  questions  arising  out  of  the  claims 
these  principles  should  be  accepted,  *  and  the  high  contracting 
parties  agree  to  observe  these  rules  between  themselves  in 
future,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  knowledge  of  other  maritime 
Powers,  and  to  invite  them  to  accede  to  them.'  The  Treaty 
then  provided  for  the  settlement  of  the  Alabama  claims  by 
a  tribunal  of  five  arbitrators,  one  to  be  appointed  by  the 
Queen,  and  the  others  respectively  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  King  of  Italy,  the  President  of  the  Swiss 
Confederation,  and  the  Emperor  of  Brazil.  This  tribunal  was 
to  meet  in  Geneva,  and  was  to  decide  by  a  majority  all  the 
questions  submitted  to  it.  The  Treaty  further  provided  for  a 
tribunal  to  settle  what  may  be  called  individual  claims  on 
either  side,  and  another  commission  to  meet  afterwards  at 
Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  and  deal  with  the  Fishery  Question,  an 
old  outstanding  dispute  as  to  the  reciprocal  rights  of  British 
and  American  subjects  to  fish  on  each  other's  coasts.  It 
referred  the  question  of  the  northern  boundary  between  the 
British  North  American  territories  and  the  United -States  to 
the  arbitration  of  the  German  Emperor.  It  also  opened  the 
navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  other  rivers. 

Some  delay  was  caused  in  the  meeting  of  the  tribunal  of 
arbitration  at  Geneva  by  the  sudden  presentation  on  the  part 
of  the  American  Government  of  what  were  called  the  indirect 
claims.      To  the  surprise  of  everybody,  the  American  case 


378      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OIVN  TIMES,     cii.  xxiv. 

when  presented  was  found  to  include  claims  for  vast  and 
indeed  almost  limitless  damages,  for  indirect  losses  alleged  to 
be  caused  by  the  cruise  of  the  Alabama  and  the  other  vessels. 
The  loss  by  the  transfer  of  trade  to  English  vessels,  the  loss 
by  increased  rates  of  insurance,  and  all  imaginable  losses  inci- 
dent to  the  prolongation  of  the  war,  were  now  made  part  of 
the  American  claims.  It  was  clear  that  if  such  a  principle 
were  admitted  there  was  no  possible  reason  why  the  claims 
should  not  include  every  dollar  spent  in  the  whole  operations 
of  the  war  and  in  supplying  any  of  the  war's  damages,  from 
the  first  day  when  the  Alabama  put  to  sea.  Even  men  like 
Mr.  Bright,  who  had  been  devoted  friends  of  the  North  during 
the  war,  protested  against  this  insufferable  claim.  It  was 
indeed  a  profound  mistake.  The  arbitration  was  on  the  point 
of  being  broken  off.  The  excitement  in  England  was  intense. 
The  American  Government  had  at  last  to  withdraw  the  claims. 
The  Geneva  arbitrators  of  their  own  motion  declared  that  all 
Buch  claims  were  invalid  and  contrary  to  international  law. 

The  decision  of  the  Geneva  Tribunal  went  against  Eng- 
land. The  court  were  unanimous  in  finding  England  respon- 
sible for  the  acts  of  the  Alabama.  A  majority  found  her 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  the  Florida  and  for  some  of  those 
of  the  Shenandoah,  but  not  responsible  for  those  of  other 
vessels.  They  awarded  a  sum  of  about  three  millions  and  a 
quarter  sterling  as  compensation  for  all  losses  and  final  settle- 
ment of  all  claims  including  interest.  The  German  Emperor 
decided  in  favour  of  the  American  claim  to  the  small  island 
of  San  Juan,  near  Vancouver's  Island,  a  question  remaining 
unsettled  since  the  Oregon  Treaty.  San  Juan  had  for  years 
been  in  a  somewhat  hazardous  condition  of  joint  occupation 
by  England  and  the  United  States.  It  was  evacuated  by 
England,  in  consequence  of  the  award,  at  the  close  of  Novem- 
ber 1873. 

The  principle  of  arbitration  had  not  thus  far  worked  in  a 
manner  calculated  greatly  to  delight  the  English  people.  In 
each  case  the  award  had  gone  decidedly  against  them.  No 
doubt  it  had  gone  against  them  because  the  right  of  each  case 
was  against  them ;  and  those  who  submit  to  arbitration  have 
no  business  to  complain  because  the  decision  is  not  given  iu 
their  favour.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the 
effect  of  the  Geneva  arbitration  was  to  create  a  sore  and  angry 
feeling  among  Englishmen  in  general.  The  feeling  found 
expression  with  some ;  smouldered  in  sullenness  with  others. 


CH.  XXIV.  'REFORMATION  IN  A  FLOOD:  379 

It  was  unreasonable  and  unjust ;  but  it  was  not  altogether 
unnatural ;  and  it  had  its  effect  on  the  popularity  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  Government. 

The  opening  of  the  Session  of  1872  was  made  melancholy 
by  the  announcement  that  Lord  Mayo,  the  Viceroy  of  India, 
had  been  killed  by  a  fanatical  assassin  in  a  convict  settlement, 
on  one  of  the.  Andaman  Islands  which  the  Viceroy  was  in- 
specting. Lord  Mayo  had  borne  himself  well  in  his  difficult 
position,  and  had  won  the  admiration  of  men  of  all  parties  by 
his  firmness,  his  energy,  his  humanity  and  his  justice. 


CHAPTEE  XXV. 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  GREAT  ADMINISTRATION. 

The  Liberal  Ministry  continued  somehow  to  fall  off  in  popu- 
larity. Mr.  Gladstone  was  profoundly  serious  in  his  purposes 
of  reform  ;  and  very  serious  men  are  seldom  popular  in  a 
society  like  that  of  London.  The  long  series  of  bold  and 
vigorous  reforms  was  undoubtedly  causing  the  public  to  lose 
its  breath.  The  inevitable  reaction  was  setting  in.  No  popu- 
larity, no  skill,  no  cunnmg  in  the  management  of  men,  no 
quality  or  endowment  on  the  part  of  the  Prime  Minister, 
could  have  wholly  prevented  that  result.  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
not  cunning  in  the  management  of  men.  He  would  probably 
have  despised  himself  for  availing  of  such  a  craft  had  he 
possessed  it.  He  showed  his  feelings  too  plainly.  If  men 
displeased  him  he  seldom  took  the  trouble  to  conceal  his 
displeasure.  It  was  murmured  among  his  followers  that  he 
was  dictatorial ;  and  no  doubt  he  was  dictatorial  in  the  sense 
that  he  had  strong  purposes  himself,  and  was  earnest  in  trying 
to  press  them  upon  other  men.  His  very  religious  opinions 
served  to  interfere  with  his  social  popularity.  He  seemed  to 
be  a  curious  blending  of  the  English  Higli  Churchman  and 
the  Scottish  Presbyterian.  He  displeased  the  ordinary  Eng- 
lish middle  class  by  leaning  too  much  to  Kitualism ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  he  often  offended  the  Eoman  Catholics  by  his 
impassioned  diatribes  against  the  Pope  and  the  Church  of 
Rome.  One  or  two  appointments  made  by  or  mider  the 
authority  of  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  occasion  to  considerable 
controversy  and  to  something  like  scandal.     One  of  these  waa 


38o     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.      cii.  xxv. 

the  appointment  of  the  Attorney- General,  Sir  Eobert  Collier, 
to  a  Puisne  Judgeship  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  in  order 
technically  to  qualify  him  for  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  a  new 
Court  of  Appeal — that  is  to  say,  to  become  one  of  the  paid 
members  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council. 
The  statute  required  that  every  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeal 
should  have  been  a  judge  of  one  of  the  ordinary  courts  ;  and 
Sir  Eobert  Collier  was  passed  through  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  in  order  that  he  might  have  the  technical  qualification. 
There  was  not  the  slightest  suggestion  of  any  improper  motive 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  or  lack  of  legal  or  judicial 
fitness  on  the  part  of  Sir  Robert  Collier.  On  the  contrary,  it 
was  admitted  that  Sir  Robert  Collier  had  helped  the  Govern- 
ment out  of  a  difficulty  by  taking  an  appointment  which 
several  judges  had  declined,  and  which  had  not  quite  such  a 
position  as  the  traditions  of  his  office  would  have  entitled  him 
to  expect.  It  seemed,  however,  as  if  there  was  something  of 
a  trick  in  the  act  which  thus  passed  him  through  the  one 
court  in  order  to  give  him  a  technical  qualification  for  the 
other.  A  vote  of  censure  on  the  Government  was  moved  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  universal  impression  was  that  it 
would  be  carried.  The  vote  of  censure  was,  however,  rejected 
by  eighty-nine  against  eighty-seven.  A  similar  attempt  was 
made  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  was  defeated ;  only 
however  by  a  majority  of  twenty -seven,  a  small  majority  in 
the  House  where  the  strength  of  the  Government  was  sup- 
posed to  lie.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  although  in  neither 
House  of  Parliament  could  any  expression  of  censure  be 
obtained,  the  '  Colliery  explosion,'  as  it  was  called,  gave  a 
downward  push  to  the  declining  popularity  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
administration. 

The  '  liquor  interest '  too  was  soon  in  arms  against  him« 
The  United  Kingdom  Alliance  '  for  the  suppression  of  the 
liquor  traffic '  had  of  late  years  been  growing  so  strong  as  to 
become  a  positive  influence  in  politics.  Its  object  was  to 
bring  about  the  adoption  of  legislation  which  should  leave  it 
in  the  power  of  a  two-thirds  majority  in  each  locality  to  stop 
altogether,  if  it  were  so  thought  fit,  the  public  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating drinks.  The  Parliamentary  loader  of  the  agitation  was 
Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson,  a  man  of  position,  of  great  energy,  and 
of  thorough  earnestness.  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  was  not,  how- 
ever, merely  energetic  and  earnest.  He  had  a  peculiarly 
effective  style  of  speaking,  curiously  unhke  that  which  might 


CH.  XXV.     FALL   OF  THE  GREAT  ADMINISTRATION,      381 

be  expected  from  the  advocate  of  an  austere  and  somewhat 
fanatical  sort  of  legislation.  He  was  a  humorist  of  a  fresh 
and  vigorous  order,  and  he  always  took  care  to  amuse  his 
listeners  and  never  allowed  his  speeches  to  bore  them.  The 
Alliance  was  always  urging  on  the  Government  and  public 
opinion  against  the  drink  traffic,  and  it  became  clear  that 
something  must  be  done  to  regulate  the  trade.  Mr.  Bruce, 
the  Home  Secretary,  brought  in  a  Bill  which  the  Alliance 
condemned  as  feebleness,  and  which  the  publicans  resented  as 
oppression.  The  Bill  increased  the  penalties  for  drunkenness, 
and  shortened  the  hours  during  which  public-houses  might  be 
kept  open  on  Sundays  and  on  week  days  as  well.  The  effect 
of  the  passing  of  this  measure  was  to  throw  the  publicans 
into  open  hostility  to  the  Government.  The  publicans  were 
a  numerous  body  ;  they  were  well  organised ;  the  network  of 
their  trade  and  their  Association  spread  all  over  the  kingdom. 
The  hostile  feelings  of  some  were  perhaps  not  unnaturally 
embittered  by  the  fact  that  many  speakers  and  writers  treated 
all  publicans  alike,  made  no  distinction  between  the  reputable 
and  the  disreputable,  though  it  was  well  known  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  publicans  carried  on  a  respectable  trade, 
and  were  losers  rather  than  gainers  by  drunkenness.  The 
natural  result  of  indiscriminate  attack  was  to  cause  an  indis- 
criminate alliance  for  the  purposes  of  defence. 

The  establishment  of  a  republic  in  France  could  not  be 
without  its  influence  on  English  politics.  A  certain  amount 
of  more  or  less  vague  republican  sentiment  is  always  afloat  on 
the  surface  of  English  radicalism.  The  establishment  of  the 
French  Kepublic  now  came  as  a  climax.  At  many  of  the  great 
meetings  which  were  held  in  London,  and  in  most  of  the 
English  cities,  to  express  sympathy  with  the  struggling  re- 
public a  good  deal  of  very  outspoken  republicanism  made  itself 
heard.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  worldng  men  in  the  cities  were  republicans  in 
sentiment.  English  writers  who  were  not  by  any  means  of 
sentimental  school,  but  on  the  contrary  were  somewhat  hard 
and  cold  in  their  dogmatism,  began  to  publish  articles  in 
*  advanced '  reviews  and  magazines,  distinctly  pointing  out  the 
logical  superiority  of  the  republican  theory.  Men  were  already 
discussing  the  possibility  of  a  declared  republican  party  being 
formed  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament ;  not  indeed  a  party 
clamouring  for  the  instant  pulling  down  of  the  monarchy ;  no 
one  thought  of  that ;   but  a  party  which  would  avow  itself 


382      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.     CH.  xxv. 

republican  in  principle,  and  acknowledge  that  its  object  was  to 
bring  about  a  change  in  public  sentiment  which  might  pre- 
pare the  way  for  a  republic  in  the  time  to  come.  But  France, 
which  had  given  the  impulse,  gave  also  the  shock  that  brought 
reaction.  The  wild  theories,  the  monstrous  excesses,  the 
preposterous  theatricism,  of  the  Paris  Commune  had  a  very 
chilling  effect  on  the  ardour  of  English  republicans.  The 
movement  in  England  had,  however,  one  or  two  curious 
episodes  before  it  sank  into  quiescence. 

In  March  1872,  Sir  Charles  Dilke  brought  on  a  motion,  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  for  inquiring  into  the  manner  in 
w^iich  the  income  and  allowances  of  the  Crown  are  expended. 
Sir  Charles  Dilke  had  been  for  some  months  of  the  preceding 
autumn  the  best  abused  man  in  Great  Britain.  His  name  ap- 
peared over  and  over  again  in  the  daily  papers.  The  comic  papers 
caricatured  *  Citizen  Dilke  '  every  week.  The  telegraph-wires 
carried  his  doings  and  speeches  everywhere.  American  corre- 
spondents '  interviewed '  him,  and  pictured  him  as  the  future 
President  of  England.  He  went  round  the  towns  of  the  North 
of  England,  delivering  a  lecture  on  the  expenses  of  royalty ; 
and  his  progress  was  marked  by  more  or  less  serious  riots 
everywhere.  Life  was  sacrificed  in  more  than  one  of  these 
tumults.  The  working  men  of  London  and  of  the  North  held 
great  meetings  to  express  their  approval  of  his  principles  and 
conduct.  To  increase  and  perplex  the  excitement,  the  Prince 
of  Wales  fell  ill,  and  if  Sir  Charles  Dilke  had  personally  caused 
his  illness  he  could  not  have  been  more  bitterly  denounced  by 
some  speakers  and  writers.  He  was  represented  as  a  monster 
of  disloyalty,  v^ho  had  chosen  to  assail  the  Queen  (against 
whom  it  is  only  fair  to  say  he  had  never  uttered  a  disparaging 
word)  while  her  eldest  son  lay  struggling  with  death.  The 
Prince  of  Wales,  given  over  by  all  the  doctors,  recovered  ;  and 
in  the  outburst  of  public  gladness  and  loyalty  that  followed 
his  restoration  to  health.  Sir  Charles  Dilke  was  almost  for- 
gotten. But  he  had  been  challenged  to  repeat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  the  statements  that  he  had  made  in  the  country. 
He  answered  the  challenge  by  bringing  forward  the  motion  to 
inquire  into  the  manner  in  which  the  income  and  allowances 
of  the  Crown  were  spent.  There  was  unmistakeable  courage 
in  the  cool,  steady  way  in  which  he  rose  to  propose  his  motion. 
Sir  Charles  Dilke  knew  that  everyone  in  that  House,  save 
three  or  four  alone,  was  bitterly  opposed  to  him.  It  is  a  hard 
trial  to  the  nerves  to  face  such  an  audience.     But  neither  then 


CH.  XXV.     FALL   OF  THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      383 

nor  after  did  he  show  the  sHghtest  sign  of  quaihng.  His 
speech  was  well  got  up  as  to  facts,  well  arranged,  and  evidently 
well  committed  to  memory,  but  it  was  not  eloquent.  The 
warmth  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  reply  was  almost  startling  by  sheer 
force  of  contrast  to  Sir  Charles  Dilke's  quiet,  dry,  and  laboured 
style.  No  one  expected  that  Mr.  Gladstone  would  be  so  pas- 
sionately merciless  as  he  proved  to  be.  His  vehemence,  forc- 
ing the  House  into  hot  temper  again,  was  one  cause  at  least  of 
the  extraordinary  tumult  that  arose  when  Sir  Charles  Dilke's 
friend  and  ally,  Mr.  Auberon  Herbert,  rose  to  speak,  and  de- 
clared himself  also  a  republican.  This  was  the  signal  for  as 
extraordinary  a  scene  as  the  House  of  Commons  has  ever  exhi- 
bited. The  tumult  became  so  great,  that  if  it  had  taken  place 
at  any  public  meeting,  it  would  have  been  called  a  riot,  and 
would  have  required  the  interference  of  the  police.  Some 
hundreds  of  strong,  excited,  furious  men  were  shouting  and 
yelling  mth  the  object  of  interrupting  the  speech  and  drown- 
mg  the  voice  of  one  man.  The  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons  is  usually  an  omnipotent  authority.  But  on  this 
occasion  the  Speaker  was  literally  powerless.  There  was  no 
authority  which  could  overawe  that  House.  Men  of  edu- 
cation and  position — university  men,  younger  sons  of  peers, 
great  landowners,  officers  in  crack  cavalry  regiments,  the  very 
elite^  many  of  them,  0^  the  English  aristocracy,  became  for 
the  moment  a  merely  furious  mob.  They  roared,  hissed, 
gesticulated  ;  the  shrill  '  cock-crow,'  unheard  in  the  House  of 
Commons  for  a  whole  generation,  shrieked  once  more  m  the 
ears  of  the  bewildered  officials. 

It  was  clear  that  there  was  no  republican  party,  properly  so 
called,  in  the  country.  Some  of  the  '  philosophical  Kadicals,* 
who  were  most  strongly  republican  in  sentiment  and  convic- 
tion, declared  in  the  most  explicit  words  that  they  would  not 
make  the  slightest  effort  to  agitate  in  favour  of  a  republic  ;  that 
they  did  not  think  the  difference  between  a  republic  and  the 
British  Constitution  was  worth  the  trouble  of  a  long  agitation. 
If  a  republic  were  to  come,  they  said,  it  would  come  in  good 
time.  England  could  afford  to  wait.  When  this  philosophical 
mood  of  mind  prevailed  among  republicans  it  was  clear  that 
the  question  of  a  republic  had  not,  as  the  phrase  is, '  come  up.' 
A  new  figure  did,  however,  arise  about  that  time  in  Eng- 
lish politics.  It  was  that  of  the  English  agricultural  labourer 
as  a  political  agitator  and  member  of  a  trades-union.  For 
years  and   years  the   working  man  in  cities  had  played  an 


384       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxv. 

influential  part  in  every  agitation.  All  the  while  the  rural 
labourer  was  supposed  to  be  entirely  out  of  the  play.  No 
one  troubled  about  him.  Sometimes  a  London  newspaper 
sent  down  a  special  correspondent  to  explore  the  condition 
of  some  village,  and  he  wrote  back  descriptions  which  made 
the  flesh  creep  about  the  miseries  of  some  labourer's  family 
of  eight  or  nine  who  habitually  slept  in  one  room,  and  in 
not  a  few  instances  in  one  bed.  That  was  the  rural  labourer 
at  his  worst.  At  his  best  he  seemed  a  picture  of  hard- 
working, cleanly,  patient,  and  almost  hopeless  poverty.  Mr. 
Disraeli  and  the  Tory  landlords  said  he  was  too  contented 
and  happy  to  need  a  change ;  most  other  people  thought 
that  he  was  rendered  too  stolid  by  the  monotonous  misery 
of  his  condition.  Suddenly  in  the  spring  of  1872,  not  long 
after  the  opening  of  Parliament,  vague  rumours  began  to  reach 
London  of  a  movement  of  some  kind  among  the  labourers  of 
South  Warwickshire.  It  was  first  reported  that  they  had  asked 
for  an  increase  of  wages,  then  that  they  were  actually  forming 
a  labourers'  union,  after  the  pattern  of  the  artisans ;  then 
that  they  were  on  strike.  There  came  accounts  of  meetings  of 
rural  labourers — meetings  positively  where  men  made  speecJies. 
Instantly  the  London  papers  sent  down  their  special  corre- 
spondents, and  for  weeks  the  movement  among  the  agricultural 
labourers  of  South  WarAvickshire — the  country  of  Shakespeare 
— became  the  sensation  of  London.  How  the  thing  first  came 
about  is  not  very  clear.  But  it  seems  that  in  one  of  the  South 
Warwickshire  villages,  when  there  was  sad  and  sullen  talk  of 
starvation,  it  occurred  to  someone  to  suggest  a  '  strike '  against 
the  landlords.  The  thing  took  fire  somehow.  A  few  men 
accepted  it  at  once.  In  the  neighbouring  village  was  a  man 
who,  although  only  a  day  labourer,  had  been  long  accustomed 
to  act  as  a  volunteer  preacher  of  Methodism,  and  who  by  his 
superior  intelligence,  his  good  character,  and  his  effective  way 
of  talking,  had  acquired  a  great  influence  among  his  fellows. 
This  man  was  Joseph  Arch.  He  was  consulted  and  he  ap- 
proved of  the  notion.  He  was  asked  if  he  would  get  together 
a  meeting  and  make  a  speech,  and  he  consented.  Calling  a 
meeting  of  day  labourers  then  was  almost  as  bold  a  step  as 
proclaiming  a  revolution.  Yet  it  was  done  somehow.  There 
were  no  circulars,  no  placards,  none  of  the  machinery  which 
we  all  associate  with  the  getting  up  of  a  meeting.  The  news 
had  to  be  passed  on  by  word  of  nioutli  tliat  a  meeting  was  to 
be  held  and  where  ;  the  incredulous  liad  to  be  convinced  that 


cii.  XXV.     FALL   OF  THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      385 

there  was  really  to  be  a  meeting,  the  timid  had  to  be  prevailed 
on  to  take  courage  and  go.  The  meeting  was  held  under  a 
great  chestnut  tree,  which  thereby  acquired  a  sort  of  fame. 
There  a  thousand  labourers  came  together  and  were  addressed 
by  Joseph  Arch.  He  carried  them  all  with  him.  His  one 
great  idea — great  and  bold  to  them,  simple  and  small  to  us — 
was  to  form  a  labourers'  union  like  the  trades-unions  of  the 
cities.  The  idea  was  taken  up  ^vith  enthusiasm.  New  branches 
were  formed  every  day.  Arch  kept  on  holding  meetings  and 
addressing  crowds.  The  whole  movement  passed,  naturally 
and  necessarily,  into  his  hands.  How  completely  it  was  a 
rural  labourers'  movement,  how  little  help  or  guidance  it  re- 
ceived in  its  origin  from  other  sources,  how  profoundly  isolated 
fi.om  the  outer  and  active  world  was  its  scene,  may  be  under- 
stood from  the  fact  that  it  was  nearly  six  weeks  in  action 
before  its  very  existence  was  known  in  London.  Then  the 
special  correspondents  went  down  to  the  spot,  and  turned  a 
blaze  of  light  on  it.  Mr.  Auberon  Herbert  and  other  active 
reformers  appeared  on  the  scene  and  threw  themselves  into 
the  movement.  Meetings  were  held  in  various  villages,  and 
Mr.  Arch  found  himself  in  the  constant  companionship  of 
members  of  Parliament,  leaders  of  political  organisations, 
and  other  unwonted  associates.  The  good  sense  of  the 
sturdy  labourer  never  forsook  the  leader  of  the  movement, 
nor  did  he  ever  show  any  inclination  to  subordinate  his  en- 
terprise to  any  political  agitation.  The  labourers  took  the 
help  of  political  leaders  so  far  as  the  mere  conduct  of  the 
organisation  was  concerned,  but  they  did  not  show  any  inclina- 
tion to  allow  their  project  to  expand  as  yet  beyond  its  simple 
and  natural  limits.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  clear  that,  so 
far  as  the  labourers  had  any  political  sympathies,  they  were 
with  Liberalism  and  against  Toryism.  This  too  was  a  little 
surprise  for  the  public.  Most  persons  had  supposed  that  a 
race  of  beings  brought  up  for  generations  under  the  exclusive 
tutorship  of  the  landlord,  the  vicar,  and  the  wives  of  the  land- 
lords and  the  vicars,  would  have  had  any  political  tendencies 
they  possessed  drilled  and  drummed  into  the  grooves  of  Toryism. 
The  shock  of  surprise  with  which  the  opposite  idea  impressed 
itself  upon  the  minds  of  the  Conservative  squires  found  ready 
and  angry  expression.  The  landlords  in  most  places  declared 
themselves  against  the  movement  of  the  labourers.  Some  of 
them  denounced  it  in  unmeasured  language.  Mr.  Disraeli  at 
once  sprang  to  the  front  as  the  champion  of  feudal  aristocracy 

17 


386       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     cir.  xxv. 

and  the  British  country  squire.  The  controversy  was  taken  up 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  served,  if  it  did  nothing  else, 
to  draw  all  the  more  attention  to  the  condition  of  the  British 
labourer. 

One  indirect  but  necessary  result  of  the  agitation  was  to 
remind  the  public  of  the  injustice  done  to  the  rural  population 
when  they  were  left  unenfranchised  at  the  time  of  the  passing 
of  the  last  Reform  Bill.  The  injustice  was  strongly  pressed 
upon  the  Government,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  frankly  acknow- 
ledged that  it  would  be  impossible  to  allow  things  to  remain 
lone:  in  their  anomalous  state.  In  truth  when  the  Eeform 
Bill  was  passed  nobody  supposed  that  the  rural  population 
were  capable  of  making  any  use  of  a  vote.  Therefore  the 
movement  which  began  in  Warwickshire  took  two  directions 
when  the  immediate  effects  of  the  partial  strike  were  over. 
A  permanent  union  of  labourers  was  formed  corresponding 
generally  in  system  with  the  organisations  of  the  cities.  The 
other  direction  was  distinctly  political.  The  rural  population 
through  their  leaders  joined  with  the  reformers  of  the  cities 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  equal  franchise  in  town  and 
country;  in  other  words,  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
peasantry.  The  emancipation  of  the  rural  labourers  began 
when  the  first  meeting  answered  the  appeals  of  Joseph  Arch. 
The  rough  and  ready  peasant  preacher  had  probably  little 
idea,  when  he  made  his  speech  mider  the  chestnut  tree,  that 
he  was  speaking  the  first  words  of  a  new  chapter  of  the 
country's  history. 

A  few  lines  ought  perhaps  to  be  spared  to  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  instances  of  disputed  identity  on  record.  A  clami 
was  suddenly  made  upon  the  Tichborne  baronetcy  and  estates 
by  a  man  who  came  from  Australia  and  who  announced  him- 
self as  the  heir  to  the  title  and  the  property.  He  declared  that 
he  was  the  Sir  Eoger  Tichborne  who  was  supposed  to  have 
gone  down  with  the  wreck  of  the  Bella,  sailing  from  Rio  in 
South  America  years  before.  *  The  Claimant '  was  curiously 
unlike  what  people  remembered  Roger  Tichborne,  not  only  in 
face  but  in  figure  and  in  manners.  A  slender,  delicate,  some- 
what feeble  young  man,  of  fair  although  not  finished  education, 
who  had  always  lived  in  good  society  and  showed  it  in  his  lan- 
guage and  bearing,  went  down  in  the  Bella,  or  at  least  disap- 
peared with  her ;  and  thirteen  years  afterwards'  there  camo 
from  Australia  a  man  of  enormous  bulk,  ignorant  to  an  almost 
inconceivable  degree  of  ignorance,  and  who  if  he  were  Roger 


CH.  XXV.     FALL    OF  THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION,      387 

Ticliborne  had  not  only  forgotten  all  the  manners  of  his  class 
but  had  forgotten  the  very  names  of  many  of  those  with  whom 
lie  ought  to  have  been  most  familiar,  including  the  name  of 
his  own  mother ;  and  this  man  presented  himself  as  the  lost 
heir  and  claimed  the  property.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  his  story 
was  believed  by  the  mother  of  Roger  Ticliborne,  and  by  a 
considerable  number  of  persons  of  undoubted  veracity  and 
intelligence  who  had  known  Roger  Ticliborne  in  his  youth. 
He  utterly  failed  to  make  out  his  claim  in  a  Court  of  Law.  It 
was  shown  upon  the  clearest  evidence  that  he  had  gradually 
put  together  and  built  up  around  him  a  whole  system  of  im- 
posture. He  was  then  put  on  trial  for  his  frauds,  found  guilty, 
and  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  penal  servitude.  Yet  thou- 
sands  of  ignorant  persons,  and  some  persons  not  at  all  ignorant, 
continued,  and  to  this  day  cominue,  to  believe  in  him. 

On  January  9,  1873,  Louis  Napoleon,  late  Emperor  of  the 
French,  died  at  his  house  in  Chislehurst,  Kent.  After  the 
overthrow  of  the  Empire,  the  fallen  Emperor  came  to  Eng- 
land. He  settled  with  his  wife  and  son  at  Chislehurst,  and 
lived  in  dignified  semi-retirement.  The  Emperor  became  a 
sort  of  favourite  with  the  public  here.  A  reaction  seemed  to 
have  set  in  against  the  dread  and  dislike  with  which  he  had 
at  one  time  been  regarded.  He  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  oi 
popularity.  Louis  Napoleon  had  for  a  long  time  been  in 
sinking  health.  His  life  had  been  overwrought  in  every  way. 
He  had  lived  many  lives  in  a  comparatively  short  space  of 
time.  Most  of  his  friends  had  long  been  expecting  his  death 
from  week  to  week,  almost  from  day  to  day.  The  event 
created  no  great  sensation.  Perhaps  even  the  news  of  his 
death  was  but  an  anti-climax  after  the  news  of  his  fall.  For 
twenty  years  he  had  filled  a  space  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
with  which  the  importance  of  no  man  else  could  pretend  to 
compare.  His  political  bulk  had  towered  up  in  European 
affairs  like  some  huge  castle  dominating  over  a  city.  All  the 
earth  listened  to  the  lightest  word  he  spoke.  For  good  or 
evil  his  influence  and  his  name  were  potent  in  every  corner  of 
the  globe.  His  nod  convulsed  continents.  His  arms  glittered 
from  the  Crimea  to  Cochin- China,  from  Algeria  to  Mexico. 
The  whole  condition  of  things  seemed  changed  when  Louis 
Napoleon  fell  at  Sedan.  Some  forty  years  of  wandering,  of 
obscurity,  of  futile,  almost  ludicrous  enterprises,  of  exile,  of 
imprisonment,  of  the  world's  contempt,  and  then  twenty  years 
of  splendid  success,  of  supreme  sovereignty,  had  led  him  to 


3S8       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxv. 

this — to  the  disgrace  of  Sedan,  to  the  quiet  fading  days  of 
Chislehurst. 

Death  was  very  busy  about  this  time  with  men  whose 
names  had  made  deep  mark  on  history  or  letters.  Lord 
Lytton,  the  brilhant  novehst,  the  successful  dramatist,  the 
composer  of  marvellous  Parliamentary  speeches,  died  on 
January  18,  1873.  Dr.  Livingstone,  the  famous  missionary 
and  explorer,  had  hardly  been  discovered  among  the  living  by 
the  enterprise  and  energy  of  Mr.  Stanley,  when  the  world 
learned  that  he  was  dead.  So  many  false  reports  of  his 
death  had  been  sent  about  at  different  times  that  the  state- 
ment now  was  received  with  incredulity.  The  truth  had  to 
be  confirmed  on  testimony  beyond  dispute  before  England 
would  accept  the  fact  that  the  long  career  of  devotion  to  the 
one  pursuit  was  over,  and  that  Africa  had  had  another  victim. 
John  Stuart  Mill  died  on  May  8,  1873,  at  his  home  at 
Avignon,  where  the  tomb  of  his  wife  was  made.  '  There's  a 
great  spirit  gone,'  was  the  word  of  all  men.  A  loftier  and 
purer  soul,  more  truly  devoted  to  the  quest  of  the  truth,  had 
not  mingled  in  the  worldly  affairs  of  our  time.  His  influence 
over  the  thought  and  the  culture  of  his  day  was  immense. 
Most  of  Mr.  Mill's  writings  may  safely  be  regarded  as  the 
possession  of  all  the  future,  and  he  has  left  an  example  of 
candour  in  investigation  and  fearless  moral  purpose  in  action 
such  as  might  well  leaven  even  the  most  thoughtless  and 
cynical  generation.  A  sudden  accident,  the  stumble  of  a 
horse,  brought  to  a  close,  on  July  19,  the  career  of  the  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  the  many-sided,  energetic,  eloquent  Samuel 
Wilberforce.  He  had  tried  to  succeed  in  everything,  and  he 
went  near  success.  He  tried  to  know  everybody,  and  under- 
stand everybody's  way  of  looking  at  every  question.  He  was  a 
great  preacher  and  Parliamentary  orator,  a  great  bishop,  a  wit, 
a  scholar,  an  accomplished  man  of  the  world ;  but  he  was  a 
good  man  and  good  minister  always.  On  the  very  day  after 
the  death  of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  died  Lord  Westbury, 
who  had  been  Lord  Chancellor,  a  man  of  great  ability,  un- 
surpassed as  a  lawyer  in  his  time,  endowed  with  as  bitter  a 
tongue  and  as  vitriolic  a  wit  as  ever  cursed  their  possessor. 
The  deaths  of  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  the  painter.  Sir  Henry 
Holland,  the  famous  physician  and  traveller,  whose  patients 
and  personal  friends  were  Emperors,  Kings,  Presidents,  and 
Prime  Ministers,  and  of  Professor  Sedgwick,  the  geologist, 
ought  to  be  mentioned.     Nor  must  we  omit  from  our  death* 


CH.  XXV.     FALL   OF  THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      389 

roll  the  name  of  Dr.  Lushington,  who,  m  addition  to  his  own 
personal  distinction,  is  likely  to  be  remembered  as  the  deposi- 
tary of  a  secret  confided  to  him  in  an  earlier  generation  by 
Lady  Byron,  the  secret  of  the  charge  she  had  to  make  against 
her  husband.  The  whole  story  was  revived  before  Dr.  Lush- 
ishgton's  death  by  a  painful  controversy,  but  he  refused  even 
by  a  yes  or  no  to  reveal  Lady  Byron's  confidence. 

The  year  which  saw  so  many  deaths  was  a  trying  time  for 
the  Liberal  Government.  The  novelty  of  the  reforming 
administration  was  well-nigh  worn  off,  and  there  was  yet 
some  work  which  Mr.  Gladstone  was  pledged  to  do.  Here 
and  there,  when  it  happened  that  the  death  or  retirement  of 
a  member  of  Parliament  gave  an  opportmiity  for  a  new  elec- 
tion, it  seemed  of  late  to  happen  that  the  election  went 
generally  against  the  Government.  The  Conservatives  were 
plucking  up  a  spirit  everywhere,  and  were  looking  closely 
after  their  organisation.  Mr.  Disraeli  himself  had  taken  to 
going  round  the  country,  addressing  great  assemblages  and 
denomicing  and  ridiculing  the  Liberal  Government.  Li  one 
of  his  speeches,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  spoken  of  a  new  difficulty  in 
Irish  politics  and  a  new  form  of  agitation  that  had  arisen  in 
Ireland.  The  Home  Rule  organisation  had  sprung  suddenly 
into  existence. 

The  Home  Rule  agitation  came,  in  its  first  organised  form, 
mainly  from  the  inspiration  of  Irish  Protestants.  The  dis- 
establishment of  the  Church  had  filled  most  of  the  Protestants 
of  Ireland  with  hatred  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  distrust  of  the 
Imperial  Parliament  and  English  parties.  It  was  therefore 
thought  by  some  of  them  that  the  time  had  come  when 
Irishmen  of  all  sects  and  parties  had  better  trust  to  them- 
selves and  to  their  united  efforts  than  to  any  English  Minister, 
Parliament,  or  party.  Partly  in  a  petulant  mood,  partly  in 
despondency,  partly  out  of  genuine  patriotic  impulse,  some  of 
the  Irish  Protestants  set  going  the  movement  for  Home  Rule. 
But  although  the  actual  movement  came  into  being  in  that 
way,  the  desire  for  a  native  Parliament  had  always  lived 
among  large  classes  of  the  Irish  people.  Attempts  were 
always  being  made  to  construct  something  like  a  regular 
organisation  with  such  an  object.  The  process  of  pacification 
was  going  on  but  slowly.  It  could  only  be  slow  in  any  case  ; 
the  effects  of  centuries  of  bad  legislation  could  not  by  any 
human  possibility  be  effaced  by  two  or  three  years  of  better 
government.      But  there  were  many  Irishmen  who,  them- 


390        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  XXV. 

selves  patient  and  moderate,  saw  with  distinctness  that  the 
feehng  of  disaffection,  or  at  least  of  discontent,  among  the 
Iiish  people  was  not  to  be  charmed  away  even  by  such 
measures  as  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church.  They 
saw  what  English  statesmen  would  not  or  could  not  see,  that 
the  one  strong  feeling  in  the  breast  of  a  large  proportion  of 
the  population  of  Ireland  was  dislike  to  the  rule  of  an  English 
Parliament.  The  national  sentiment,  rightly  or  wrongly,  for 
good  ov  ill,  had  grown  so  powerful  that  it  could  not  be  over- 
come by  mere  concessions  in  this  or  that  detail  of  legislation. 
These  Irishmen  of  moderate  views  felt  convinced  that  there 
were  only  two  alternatives  before  England ;  either  she  must 
give  back  to  Ireland  some  form  of  national  Parliament,  or 
she  must  go  on  putting  down  rebellion  after  rebellion,  and 
dealing  with  Ireland  as  Kussia  had  dealt  with  Poland.  They 
therefore  welcomed  the  Home  Eule  movement,  and  conscien- 
tiously believed  that  it  would  open  the  way  to  a  genuine 
reconciliation  between  England  and  Ireland  on  conditions  of 
fair  co-partnership. 

Several  Irish  elections  took  place  about  the  time  when  the 
Home  Eule  movement  had  been  fairly  started.  They  were 
fought  out  on  the  question  for  or  against  Home  Rule ;  and 
the  Home  Rulers  were  successful.  The  leadership  of  the  new 
party  came  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Butt,  who  returned  to  Par- 
liament after  a  considerable  time  of  exile  from  political  life. 
Mr.  Butt  w^as  a  man  of  great  ability,  legal  knowledge,  and 
historical  culture.  He  had  begun  life  as  a  Conserva,tive  and 
an  opponent  of  O'Connell.  He  had  become  one  of  the  orators 
of  the  short-lived  attempt  at  a  Protectionist  reaction  in  Eng- 
land. He  was  a  lawyer  of  great  skill  and  success  in  his 
profession ;  as  an  advocate  he  had  for  years  not  a  rival  at 
the  Irish  bar.  He  had  taken  part  in  the  defence  of  Smith 
O'Brien  and  Meagher  at  Clonmel,  in  1848  ;  and  when  the 
Fenian  movements  broke  out,  he  undertook  the  defence  of 
many  Fenian  prisoners.  He  became  gradually  drawn  away 
from  Conservatism  and  brought  round  to  Nationalism.  Mr. 
Butt  dropped  entirely  out  of  public  life  for  a  while ;  and 
when  he  reappeared  it  was  as  the  leader  of  the  new  Home 
Rule  movement.  There  was  not  then  in  Irish  politics  any 
man  who  could  pretend  to  be  his  rival.  He  w^as  a  speaker  at 
once  powerful  and  plausible  ;  he  had  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  constitutional  history  and  the  teclmical  procedures  of 
Parliament,  and  he  could  talk  to  an  Irish  monster  meeting 

0\  ' 


cii.  XXV.     FALL   OF   TILE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      391 

with  vivacity  and  energy.  Almost  in  a  moment  a  regular 
Home  Rule  party  was  set  up  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Popular  Irish  members  who  had  been  elected  previous  to  the 
organisation  of  the  movement  g?«ve  in  their  adhesion  to  it ; 
and  there  was  in  fact  a  sudden  revival  of  the  constitutional 
movement  for  the  satisfaction  of  Irish  national  claims  which 
had  fallen  asleep  after  the  death  of  O'Connell  and  the  failure 
of  the  Yomig  Ireland  rebellion  of  1848. 

The  Home  Eule  movement  unquestionably  put  Mr.  Glad- 
stone in  a  new  difficulty.  It  was  now  certain  that  when 
Parliament  met,  an  organised  Home  Eule  party  would  be 
found  there  ;  and  a  good  many  strong  Conservatives  and  v/eak 
Liberals  were  inclined  to  hold  Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  policy 
responsible  for  the  uprise  of  this  new  agitation.  The  prospects 
were  on  the  whole  growing  somewhat  ominous  for  the  Liberal 
Government.  Not  only  the  Conservative  party  were  plucking 
up  a  spirit,  but  the  House  of  Lords  had  more  than  once  made 
it  clear  that  they  felt  themselves  emboldened  to  deal  as  they 
thought  fit  with  measures  sent  up  to  them  from  the  House  of 
Commons.  When  the  peers  begin  to  be  firm  and  to  assert 
their  dignity,  it  may  always  be  taken  for  granted  that  there  is 
not  much  popular  force  at  the  back  of  the  Government. 

Parliament  met  on  February  6,  1873.  It  is  a  remarkable 
illustration  of  the  legislative  energy  with  which  the  Govern- 
ment were  even  yet  filled,  that  on  the  very  same  night 
(February  13),  at  the  very  same  hour,  two  great  schemes  of 
reform,  reform  that  to  slow  and  timid  minds  must  have 
seemed  something  like  revolution,  were  introduced  into  Par- 
liament. One  was  the  Irish  University  Education  Bill,  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  explaining  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  the 
other  was  a  measure  to  abolish  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  establish  a  judicial  Court  of  Appeal 
in  its  stead.  This  latter  measure  was  introduced  by  Lord 
Selborne,  lately  Sir  Roundell  Palmer,  who  had  been  raised  to 
the  office  of  Lord  Chancellor,  on  the  resignation  of  Lord 
Hatherley,  whose  eyesight  was  temporarily  affected.  Great 
as  the  change  was  which  Lord  Selborne  proposed  to  intro- 
duce, public  attention  paid  comparatively  little  heed  to  it  at 
that  moment.  Everyone  watched  with  eager  interest  the 
development  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  most  critical  scheme  for  the 
improvement  of  miiversity  education  in  Ireland.  Irish  univer- 
sity education  was  indeed  in  a  very  anomalous  condition. 
Ireland  had  two  universities  :  that  of  Dublin,  v/hich  was  then 


392        A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxv. 

a  distinctly  Protestant  institution ;  and  the  Queen's  Univer- 
sity, which  was  estabhshed  on  a  strictly  secular  system,  and 
which  the  heads  of  the  Catholic  Church  had  on  that  account 
condemned.  The  Catholics  asked  for  a  chartered  Catholic 
university.  The  answer  made  by  most  Englishmen  was,  that 
to  grant  a  charter  to  a  Catholic  university  would  be  to  run 
the  risk  of  lowering  the  national  standard  of  education,  and 
that  to  grant  any  State  aid  to  a  Catholic  university  would  be 
to  endow  a  sectarian  institution  out  of  the  public  funds.  The 
Catholic  made  rejoinder  that  a  mere  speculative  dread  of 
lowering  the  common  standard  of  university  education  was 
hardly  a  reason  why  five-sixths  of  the  population  of  Ireland 
should  have  no  university  education  of  that  kind  at  all ;  that 
the  University  of  Dublin  was  in  essence  a  State-endowed 
institution  ;  and  that  the  Queen's  University  was  founded  by 
State  money,  on  a  principle  which  excluded  the  vast  majority 
of  Catholics  from  its  advantages. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  measure  was  a  gallant  and  a  well-meant 
effort  to  reconcile  the  conflicting  claims.  Mr.  Gladstone 
proposed  to  establish  in  Ireland  one  central  university,  the 
University  of  Dublin,  to  which  existing  colleges  and  colleges 
to  exist  hereafter  might  affiliate  themselves,  and  in  the 
governing  of  which  they  would  have  a  shai^e,  while  each 
college  would  make  what  laws  it  pleased  for  its  own  constitu- 
tion, and  might  be  denominational  or  undenominational  as  it 
thought  fit.  The  Legislature  would  give  an  open  career  and 
fair  play  to  all  alike  ;  and  in  order  to  make  the  University 
equally  applicable  to  every  sect,  it  would  not  teach  disputed 
branches  of  knowledge,  or  allow  its  examinations  for  prizes  to 
include  any  of  the  disputed  questions.  The  colleges  could  act 
for  themselves  with  regard  to  the  teaching  of  theology,  moral 
philosophy,  and  modern  history  ;  the  central  University  would 
maintain  a  neutral  ground  so  far  as  these  subjects  were  con- 
cerned, and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them.  This 
scheme  looked  plausible  and  even  satisfactory  for  a  moment. 
It  was  met  that  first  night  with  something  like  a  chorus  of 
approval  from  those  who  spoke.  But  there  was  an  ominous 
silence  in  many  parts  of  the  House ;  and  after  a  while  the 
ominous  silence  began  to  be  very  alarmingly  broken.  The 
more  the  scheme  was  examined  the  less  it  seemed  to  find 
favour  on  either  side  of  the  House.  It  proposed  to  break  up 
and  fuse  to^otlier  tlireo  or  four  existing  systems,  and  ap- 
parently without  the  least  prospect  of  satisfying  any  of  the 


CH.  XXV.     FALL    OF  THE   GREAT  ADMISUSTRATION:      393 

various  sects  and  parties  to  compose  whose  strife  this  great 
revohition  was  to  be  attempted.  There  was  great  justice  in 
the  complaint  that  soon  began  td  be  heard  from  both  sides  of 
the  House  of  Commons  :  '  You  are  spoihng  several  institutions, 
and  you  are  not  satisfying  the  requirements  of  anybody  what- 
ever.' 

The  agitation  against  the  bill  grew  and  grew.  The  late 
Professor  Cairnes,  then  in  fast  failing  health,  inspired  and 
guided  much  of  that  part  of  the  opposition  which  condemned 
the  measure  because  of  the  depreciating  effect  it  would  have 
on  the  character  of  the  higher  education  of  Ireland.  The 
English  Nonconformists  were  all  against  it.  The  Conserva- 
tives were  against  it,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 
Irish  members  of  Parliament  would  vote  as  a  body  against  it. 
The  crisis  came  on  an  amendment  to  the  motion  for  the  second 
reading.  The  amendment  was  moved  on  March  3  by  Mr. 
Bourke,  brother  of  the  late  Lord  Mayo.  The  debate,  which 
lasted  four  nights,  was  brilliant  and  impassioned.  Mr.  Disraeli 
was  exulting,  and  his  exultation  lent  even  more  than  usual 
spirit  to  his  glittering  eloquence  as  he  taunted  Mr.  Gladstone 
with  having  mistaken  '  the  clamour  of  the  Nonconformist  for 
the  voice  of  the  nation,'  and  declared  his  belief  that  the  English 
people  were  weary  of  the  policy  of  confiscation. 

When  Mr.  Gladstone  rose  to  speak  at  the  close  of  the 
fourth  night's  debate  it  soon  became  evident  that  he  no  longer 
counted  on  victory.  How,  indeed,  could  he  ?  He  was  opposed 
and  assailed  from  all  sides.  He  knew  that  the  Senate  of  the 
University  of  Dublin  had  condemned  his  measure  as  well  as 
the  Eoman  Catholic  prelates.  He  had  received  a  deputation 
of  Irish  members  to  announce  to  him  frankly  that  they  could 
not  support  him.  His  speech  was  in  remarkable  contrast  to 
the  jubilant  tones  of  Mr.  Disraeli's  defiant  and  triumphant 
rhetoric.  It  was  full  of  dignity  and  resolve ;  but  it  was  the 
dignity  of  anticipated  defeat  met  without  shrinking  and  with- 
out bravado.  A  few  sentences,  in  which  Mr.  Gladstone  spoke 
of  his  severance  from  the  Irish  representatives  with  whom  he 
had  worked  cordially  and  successfully  on  the  Church  and 
Land  Bills,  were  full  of  a  genuine  and  a  noble  pathos.  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  the  first  English  Prime  Minister  who  had  ever 
really  perilled  office  and  popularity  to  serve  the  interests  of 
Ireland ;  it  seemed  a  cruel  stroke  of  fate  which  made  his  fall 
from  power  mainly  the  result  of  the  Irish  vote  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  result  of  the  division  was  waited  with 
17^ 


394     -^   SHORT  HIS 7 OR Y  OF  OUR   OJVN  TIMES.     CH.  xxv. 

breathless  anxiety.  It  was  what  had  been  expected.  The 
ministry  had  been  defeated  by  a  small  majority ;  287  had 
voted  against  the  second  reading,  284  voted  for  it.  By  a 
majority  of  three  the  great  Liberal  administration  was  practi- 
cally overthrown. 

The  ministry  did  not  indeed  come  to  an  end  just  then. 
Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  colleagues  resigned  office,  and  the 
Queen  sent  for  Mr.  Disraeli.  But  Mr.  Disraeli  prudently  de- 
clined to  accept  office  vath  the  existing  House  of  Commons. 
He  had  been  carefully  studying  the  evidences  of  Conservative 
reaction,  and  he  felt  sure  that  the  time  for  his  party  w^as 
coming.  He  had  had  bitter  experience  of  the  humiliation  of 
a  minister  who  tries  to  govern  without  a  majority  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  He  could  of  course  form  a  government,  he  said, 
and  dissolve  in  May ;  bat  then  he  had  nothing  in  particular 
to  dissolve  about.  The  situation  was  curious.  There  were 
two  great  statesmen  disputing,  not  for  office,  but  how  to  get 
out  of  the  responsibility  of  office.  The  result  was  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  his  colleagues  had  to  return  to  their  places  and 
go  on  as  best  they  could.  There  was  nothing  else  to  be  done. 
Mr.  Disraeli  would  not  accept  responsibility  just  then,  and  with 
regard  to  the  interests  of  his  party  he  was  acting  like  a  prudent 
man.  Mr.  Gladstone  returned  to  office.  He  returned  reluc- 
tantly ;  he  was  weary  of  the  work ;  he  was  disappointed  ;  he  had 
suffered  in  health  from  the  incessant  administrative  labour  to 
which  he  had  always  subjected  himself  with  an  unsparing  and 
almost  improvident  magnanimity.  He  must  have  known  that, 
coming  back  to  office  under  such  conditions,  he  would  find  his 
power  shaken,  his  influence  much  discredited.  He  bent  to  the 
necessities  of  the  time,  and  consented  to  be  Prime  Minister 
still.  He  helped  Mr.  Fawcett  to  carry  a  bill  for  the  abolition 
of  tests  in  Dublin  University,  as  he  could  do  no  more  just  then 
for  university  education  in  Ireland. 

The  end  was  near.  During  the  autumn  some  elections 
happening  incidentally  turned  out  against  the  Liberal  party. 
The  Conservatives  were  beginning  to  be  openly  triumphant  in 
most  places.  Mr.  Gladstone  made  some  modifications  in  his 
ministry.  Mr.  Lowe  gave  up  the  Chancellorship  of  the 
Exchequer,  in  which  he  had  been  singularly  unsuccessful ; 
Mr.  Bruce  left  the  Home  Office,  in  which  he  had  not  been 
much  of  a  success.  Mr.  Gladstone  took  upon  himself  the 
offices  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the 


CH.  XXV.     FALL  OF  THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      395 

Exchequer  together,  folio  whig  an  example  set  in  former  days 
by  Peel  and  other  statesmen.  Mr.  Lowe  became  Home  Secre- 
tary. Mr.  Bruce  w^as  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Lord  Aberdare, 
and  was  made  President  of  the  Council  in  the  room  of  the 
Marquis  of  Eipon,  who  had  resigned.  Mr.  Childers  resigned 
the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  and  Mr. 
Bright,  whose  health  had  now  been  restored,  came  back  to 
the  Cabinet  in  charge  of  the  merely  nominal  business  of  the 
Duchy.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  there  were  dissensions 
in  the  ministry.  Mr.  Baxter  had  resigned  the  office  of  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  on  the  ground  that  he  could  not  get  on 
with  Mr.  Lowe,  who  had  not  consulted  him  with  regard  to 
certain  contracts,  and  had  refused  to  take  his  advice.  The 
general  impression  was  that  Mr.  Childers  gave  up  the  Chan- 
cellorship of  the  Duchy  because  he  considered  that  he  had 
claims  on  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  now  had  taken  to  himself.  These  various 
changes  and  the  rumours  to  which  they  gave  birth  were  not 
calculated  to  strengthen  the  public  confidence.  Li  truth,  the 
Liberal  regime  was  falling  to  pieces. 

But  it  was  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  who  dealt  the  stroke 
which  brought  the  Liberal  Administration  to  an  end.  In  the 
closing  days  of  1873  the  Conservatives  won  a  seat  at  Exeter; 
in  the  first  few  days  of  1874  they  won  a  seat  at  Stroud. 
Parliament  had  actually  been  summoned  for  February  5. 
Suddenly,  on  January  23,  Mr.  Gladstone  made  up  his  mind  to 
dissolve  Parliament,  and  seek  for  a  restoration  of  the  authority 
of  the  Liberal  Government  by  an  appeal  to  the  people.  The 
country  was  taken  utterly  by  surprise.  Many  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's own  colleagues  had  not  known  what  was  to  be  done 
until  the  announcement  was  actually  made.  The  feeling  all 
over  the  three  kingdoms  was  one  of  almost  unanimous  dis- 
approval. Mr.  Gladstone's  sudden  resolve  was  openly  con- 
demned as  petulant  and  unstatesmanlike  ;  it  was  privately 
grumbled  at  on  various  personal  grounds.  Mr.  Gladstone  had 
surprised  the  constituencies.  TVe  do  not  know  whether  the 
constituencies  surprised  Mr.  Gladstone.  They  certainly  sur- 
prised most  persons,  including  themselves.  The  result  of  the 
elections  was  to  upset  completely  the  balance  of  power.  In  a 
few  days  the  Liberal  majority  was  gone.  When  the  result  of 
the  polls  came  to  be  made  up  it  was  found  that  the  Conserva- 
tives had  a  majority  of  about  fifty,  even  on  the  calculation,  far 
too  favourable  to  the  other  side,  which  counted  every  Home 


396      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxv. 

Ruler  as  a  Liberal.  Mr.  Gladstone  followed  the  example  set 
by  Mr.  Disraeli  six  years  before,  and  at  once  resigned  office. 
The  great  reforming  Liberal  Administration  was  gone.  The 
organising  energy  which  had  accomplished  such  marvels 
during  three  or  four  resplendent  years  had  Sjoent  itself  and 
was  out  of  breath.  The  English  constituencies  had  grown 
weary  of  the  heroic,  and  would  have  a  change.  So  sudden  a 
fall  from  power  had  not  up  to  that  time  been  known  in  the 
modern  political  history  of  the  country. 

Had  the  Liberal  Ministers  consented  to  remain  in  power  a 
few  days,  a  very  few,  longer,  they  w^ould  have  been  able  to 
announce  the  satisfactory  conclusion  of  a  very  unsatisfactory 
war.  The  Ashantee  war  arose  out  of  a  sort  of  misunderstand- 
ing. The  Ashantees  are  a  very  fierce  and  warlike  tribe  on 
the  Gold  Coast  of  Africa.  They  were  at  war  with  England 
in  1824,  and  in  one  instance  they  won  an  extraordinary 
victory  over  a  British  force  of  about  1,000  men,  and  carried 
home  with  them  as  a  trophy  the  skull  of  the  British  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, Sir  Charles  M'Carthy.  They  were  after- 
wards defeated,  and  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  with  them. 
In  18G3  a  v/ar  was  begun  against  the  Ashantees  prematurely 
and  rashly  by  the  Governor  of  the  Gold  Coast  Settlements, 
and  it  had  to  be  abandoned  owing  to  the  ravages  done  by 
sickness  among  our  men.  In  1872  some  Dutch  possessions 
on  the  Gold  Coast  were  transferred  by  purchase  and  arrange- 
ment of  other  kinds  to  England.  The  King  of  Ashantee 
claimed  a  tribute  formerly  allowed  to  him  by  the  Dutch,  and 
refused  to  evacuate  the  territory  ceded  to  England.  He 
attacked  the  Fantees,  a  tribe  of  very  worthless  allies  of  ours, 
and  a  straggling,  harassing  war  began  between  him  and  our 
garrisons.  The  great  danger  was  that  if  the  Ashantees  ob- 
tained any  considerable  success,  or  seeming  success,  even  for  a 
moment,  all  the  surrounding  tribes  would  make  common  cause 
with  them.  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley,  who  had  commanded  the 
successful  expedition  to  the  Ked  River  region  in  1870,  was 
sent  out  to  Ashantee.  He  had  a  very  hard  task  to  perform. 
Of  course  he  could  have  no  difficulty  in  fighting  the  Ashantees. 
The  weapons  and  the  discipline  of  the  English  army  put  all 
thought  of  serious  battle  out  of  the  question.  But  the  whole 
campaign  had  to  be  over  and  done  within  the  limited  range  of 
the  cooler  montlis,  or  the  heat  would  bring  pestilence  and 
fever  into  the  field  to  do  battle  for  the  African  King. 
Sir   Garnet   Wolseley   and  those   who  fought   under  him — 


CH.  XXV.     FALL   OF   THE   GREAT  ADMINISTRATION.      397 

sailors,  marines,  and  soldiers,  did  their  work  well.  They 
defeated  the  Ashantees  wherever  they  could  get  at  them  ; 
they  forced  their  way  to  Coomassie,  compelled  the  King  to 
come  to  terms,  one  of  the  conditions  being  the  prohibition  of 
hmnan  sacrifices,  and  they  were  able  to  leave  the  country 
within  the  appointed  time.  The  success  of  the  campaign  was 
a  question  of  days  and  almost  of  hours  ;  and  the  victory  was 
snatched  out  of  the  very  jaws  of  approaching  sun  and  fever. 
Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  sailed  from  England  on  September  12,- 
1873,  and  returned  to  Portsmouth,  having  accomplished  all 
his  objects,  on  March  21,  1874. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

LOED     BEACONSFIELD. 

Mr.  Disraeli  was  not  long  in  forming  a  Ministry.  Lord 
Cairns  became  Lord  Chancellor.  Lord  Derby  was  made 
Foreign  Secretary,  an  appointment  which  gratified  sober- 
minded  men.  Lord  Salisbury  was  entrusted  with  the  charge 
of  the  Indian  Department.  This  too  was  an  appointment 
which  gave  satisfaction  outside  the  range  of  the  Conservative 
party  as  well  as  withm  it.  During  his  former  administration 
of  the  India  Office,  Lord  Salisbury  had  shown  great  ability 
and  self-command,  and  he  had  acquired  a  reputation  for  firm- 
ness of  character  and  large  and  liberal  views.  He  was  now 
and  for  some  time  after  looked  upon  as  the  most  rising  man 
and  the  most  high-minded  politician  on  the  Conservative  side. 
The  country  was  pleased  to  see  that  Mr.  Disraeli  made  no 
account  of  the  dislike  that  Lord  Salisbury  had  e\ddently  felt 
towards  him  at  one  time,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  he  had 
broken  away  from  the  Conservative  Ministry  at  the  time  of 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1867.  Lord  Carnarvon  became  Colonial 
Secretary.  Mr.  Cross,  a  Lancashire  lawyer,  who  had  never 
been  in  office  of  any  kind  before,  was  lifted  into  the  position  of 
Home  Secretary.  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy  was  made  Secretary 
for  War,  and  Mr.  Ward  Hunt  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  who  had  been  trained  to'  finance  by 
Mr.  Gladstone,  accepted  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer. The  Duke  of  Richmond  as  Lord  President  of  the 
Council  made  a  safe,  inoffensive,  and  respectable  leader  of  the 
Government  in  the  House  of  Lords. 


398    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxvi. 

The  Liberals  seemed  to  have  received  a  stunning  blow. 
The  whole  party  reeled  under  it,  and  did  not  appear  capable 
for  the  moment  of  rallying  against  the  shock.  To  accumulate 
the  difficulties,  Mr.  Gladstone  suddenly  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  retiring  from  the  position  of  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party.  This  seemed  the  one  step  needed  to  complete  the  dis- 
organisation of  the  party.  The  Opposition  were  for  a  while 
apparently  not  only  without  a  leader  but  even  without  a  policy, 
or  a  motive  for  existence.  The  Ministry  had  succeeded  to  a 
handsome  surplus  of  nearly  six  millions.  It  would  be  hardly 
possible  under  such  circumstances  to  bring  in  a  budget  which 
should  be  wholly  unsatisfactory.  Mr.  Ward  Hunt  contrived 
indeed  to  get  up  a  momentary  scare  about  the  condition  of  the 
navy.  When  introducing  the  Navy  Estimates  he  talked  in 
tones  of  ominous  warning  about  his  determination  not  to  have 
a  fleet  on  paper,  or  to  put  up  with  phantom  ships.  The  words 
sent  a  wild  thrill  of  alarm  through  the  country.  The  sudden 
impression  prevailed  that  Mr.  Hunt  had  made  a  fearful  dis- 
covery— had  found  out  that  the  country  had  really  no  navy  ; 
that  he  would  be  compelled  to  set  about  constructing  one  out 
of  hand.  Mr.  Ward  Hunt,  however,  when  pressed  for  an  ex- 
planation, explained  that  he  really  meant  nothing.  It  appeared 
that  he  had  only  been  expressing  his  disapproval  on  abstract 
grounds  of  the  maintenance  of  inefficient  navies,  and  never 
meant  to  convey  the  idea  that  England's  navy  was  not  efficient, 
and  the  country  breathed  again. 

Two  new  measures  belonging  to  the  same  order  disturbed 
for  a  while  the  calm  which  prevailed  in  Parliament  now  that 
the  Conservatives  had  it  all  their  own  way,  and  the  Liberals 
were  crushed.  One  was  the  Bill  for  the  abolition  of  Church 
Patronage  in  Scotland  ;  the  other,  the  Public  Worship  Bill 
for  England.  The  Church  Patronage  Bill,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  Government,  took  away  the  appointment  of 
ministers  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  from  lay  patrons,  and 
gave  it  to  the  congregation  of  the  parish  church,  a  congrega- 
tion to  consist  of  the  communicants  and  '  such  other  adherents' 
as  the  Kirk  Session,  acting  under  the  control  of  the  General 
Assembly,  might  determine  to  allow.  Such  a  measure  might 
have  prevented  the  great  secession  from  the  Church  of  Scotland 
under  Dr.  Chalmers  in  1843  ;  but  it  was  useless  lor  any  pur- 
pose of  reconciliation  in  1874.  Its  introduction  became  of  some 
present  interest  to  the  House  of  Commons,  because  it  drew 
Mr.  Gladstone  into  debate  for  the  first  time  since  the  opening 


CH.  xxvT.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD.  399 

nights  of  the  session.  He  opposed  the  Bill,  but  of  course  in 
vain.  Mr.  Disraeli  complimented  him  on  his  reappearance, 
and  kindly  expressed  a  hope  that  he  would  favour  the  House 
with  his  presence  as  often  as  possible ;  indeed,  was  quite 
friendly  and  patronising  to  his  fallen  rival. 

The  Bill  for  the  Eegulation  of  Public  Worship  was  not  a 
Government  measure.  It  was  introduced  into  the  House 
of  Lords  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  into  the 
House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Eussell  Gurney.  It  was  strongly 
disliked  and  publicly  condemned  by  some  members  of  the 
Cabinet ;  but  after  it  had  gone  its  way  fairly  towards  success 
Mr.  Disraeli  showed  a  disposition  to  adopt  it,  and  even  to 
speak  as  if  he  had  had  the  responsibility  of  it  from  the  first. 
The  bill  illustrated  a  curious  difficulty  into  which  the  Church  of 
England  had  been  brought,  in  consequence  partly  of  its  con- 
nection with  the  State.  The  mfluence  of  the  Oxford  move- 
ment had  set  thought  stirring  everywhere  within  the  Church. 
It  appealed  to  much  that  was  philosophical,  much  that  was 
artistic  and  assthetic,  and  at  the  same  time  to  much  that  was 
sceptical.  One  body  of  Churchmen,  the  Tractarians  as  they 
were  called,  were  anxious  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  would  not  admit  that  the  Church  of  England 
began  to  exist  with  the  Eeformation.  They  claimed  apos- 
tolical succession  for  their  bishops ;  they  declared  that  the 
clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  were  priests  in  the 
true  spiritual  sense.  The  Evangelicals  maintained  that 
the  Bible  was  the  sole  authority ;  the  Tractarians  held 
that  the  New  Testament  derived  its  authority  from  the 
Church.  The  Tractarians  therefore  claimed  a  right  to 
examine  very  freely  into  the  meaning  of  doubtful  passages 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  insisted  that  if  the  authority  of  the 
Church  were  recognised  as  that  of  the  Heaven-appointed 
interpreter,  all  difficulty  about  the  reconciliation  of  the  scrip- 
tural writings  with  the  discoveries  of  modern  science  would 
necessarily  disappear.  The  Tractarian  party  became  divided 
into  two  sections.  One  section  inclined  towards  w^hat  may 
almost  be  called  free  thought ;  the  other,  to  the  sentiments 
and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  The 
astonished  Evangelicals  saw  with  dismay  that  the  Church  as 
they  knew  it  seemed  likely  to  be  torn  asmider.  The  Evan- 
gelicals had  their  strongest  supporters  among  the  middle  and 
the  lower-middle  classes  ;  the  others  found  favour  at  once 
among  the  rich,  who  went  in  for  culture,  and  among  the  very 


400    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.    CH.  xxvi. 

poor.  The  law,  which  was  often  mvoked,  proved  impotent  ta 
deal  with  the  difficulty.  It  was  found  impossible  to  put  do^ATi 
Kitualism  by  law.  The  law  was  not  by  any  means  so  clear 
as  some  of  the  opponents  of  Eitualism  would  have  wished  it. 
Moreover,  even  in  cases  where  a  distinct  condemnation  was 
obtained  from  a  court  of  law  there  was  often  no  way  of  putting 
it  into  execution.  In  more  than  one  case  a  clergyman  was 
actually  deposed  by  authority,  and  his  successor  appointed. 
The  congregation  held  fast  by  the  delinquent  and  would  not 
admit  the  new  man.  The  offender  remained  at  his  post  just 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  It  was  clear  that  if  all  this  went 
on  much  longer,  the  Establishment  must  come  to  an  end. 
One  party  would  renounce  State  control  in  order  to  get 
freedom ;  another  would  repudiate  State  control  because  it 
proved  unable  to  maintain  authority. 

To  remedy  all  this  disorder,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
brought  in  his  bill.  Its  object  was  to  give  offended  parishioners 
a  ready  way  of  invoking  the  authority  of  the  bishop,  and  to 
enable  the  bishop  to  prohibit  by  his  own  mandate  any  prac- 
tices which  he  considered  improper,  or  else  to  submit  the 
question  to  the  decision  of  a  judge  specially  appointed  to 
decide  in  such  cases.  The  discussions  were  remarkable  for 
the  divisions  of  opinion  they  showed  on  both  sides  of  the 
House.  Lord  Salisbury  opposed  the  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Lords ;  Mr.  Hardy  condemned  it  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
It  was  condemned  as  too  weak ;  it  was  denounced  as  too 
strong.  Mr.  Gladstone  came  forward  with  all  the  energy  of 
his  best  days  to  oppose  it,  on  the  ground  that  it  threatened  to 
deprive  the  Church  of  all  her  spiritual  freedom  merely  to  get 
a  more  easy  way  of  dealing  with  the  practices  of  a  few  eccen- 
tric men.  Sir  William  Harcourt,  who  had  been  Solicitor- 
General  under  Mr.  Gladstone,  rushed  to  the  defence  of  the 
bill,  attacked  Mr.  Gladstone  vehemently,  called  upon  Mr. 
Disraeli  to  prove  himself  the  leader  of  the  English  people,  and 
in  impassioned  sentences  reminded  him  that  he  had  put  his 
hand  to  the  plough  and  must  not  draw  it  back.  Mr.  Gladstone 
dealt  with  his  late  subordinate  in  a  few  sentences  of  good- 
humoured  contempt,  in  which  he  expressed  his  special  sur- 
prise at  the  sudden  and  portentous  display  of  erudition  which 
Sir  William  Harcourt  had  poured  out  upon  the  House.  Sir 
William  Harcourt  was  even  then  a  distinctly  rising  man.  He 
was  an  effective  and  somewhat  overbearing  speaker,  with  a 
special  aptitude  for  the  kind  of  elementary  argument  and  the 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD.  401 

knock-down  personalities  which  the  House  of  Commons  can 
never  fail  to  understand.  The  House  liked  to  listen  to  him. 
He  had  a  loud  voice,  and  never  gave  his  hearers  the  trouble  of 
having  to  strain  their  ears  or  their  attention  to  follow  him. 
His  arguments  were  never  subtle  enough  to  puzzle  the  simplest 
country  gentleman  for  one  moment.  His  quotations  had  no 
distracting  novelty  about  them,  but  fell  on  the  ear  with  a 
familiar  and  friendly  sound.  His  jokes  were  unmistakable 
in  their  meaning  ;  his  whole  style  was  good  strong  black  and 
white.  He  could  get  up  a  case  admirably.  He  astonished  the 
House,  and  must  probably  even  have  astonished  himself,  by  the 
vast  amount  of  ecclesiastical  knowledge  which  with  onlv  the 
preparation  of  a  day  or  two  he  w^as  able  to  bring  to  bear  upon 
the  most  abstruse  or  perplexed  questions  of  Church  govern- 
ment.. He  had  the  advantage  of  being  sure  of  everything. 
He  poured  out  his  eloquence  and  his  learning  on  the  most 
difficult  ecclesiastical  questions  with  the  resolute  assurance  of 
one  who  had  given  a  life  to  the  study.  Perhaps  we  ought 
rather  to  say  that  he  showed  the  resolute  assurance  which  only 
belongs  to  one  who  has  not  given  much  of  his  life  to  the  study 
of  the  subject.  Mr.  Disraeli  responded  so  far  to  Sir  William 
Harcourt's  stirring  appeal  as  to  make  himself  the  patron  of  the 
bill  and  the  leader  of  the  movement  in  its  favour.  Mr.  Disraeli 
saw  that  by  far  the  greater  body  of  English  public  opinion  out 
of  doors  was  against  the  Eitualists,  and  that  for  the  moment 
public  opinion  accepted  the  whole  controversy  as  a  dispute  for 
or  against  Kitualism.  The  course  taken  by  the  Prime  Minister 
further  enlivened  the  debates  by  bringing  about  a  keen  little 
passage  of  arms  between  him  and  Lord  Salisbury,  whom  Mr. 
Disraeli  described  as  a  great  master  of  jibes  and  flouts  and 
jeers.  The  bill  was  passed  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and 
obtained  the  Koyal  assent  almost  at  the  end  of  the  session. 

A  measure  for  the  protection  of  seamen  agamst  the  danger 
of  being  sent  to  sea  in  vessels  unfit  for  the  voyage  was  forced 
upon  the  Government  by  Mr.  Plimsoll.  Mr.  Plimsoll  was  a 
man  who  had  pushed  his  way  through  life  by  ability  and  hard 
work  into  independence  and  w^ealtli.  He  was  full  of  human 
sympathy,  and  was  especially  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the 
poor.  Mr.  Plimsoll's  attention  happened  to  be  turned  to  the 
condition  of  our  merchant  seamen,  and  he  found  that  the  state 
of  the  law  left  them  almost  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  unscru- 
pulous and  selfish  shipowners.  It  was  easy  to  insure  a  vessel, 
and  once  insured  it  mattered  little  to  such  a  shipowner  Low 


402    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxvi. 

soon  she  went  to  the  bottom.  The  law  gave  to  magistrates 
the  power  of  sending  to  prison  the  seaman  who  for  any  reason 
refused  to  fulfil  his  contract  and  go  to  sea.  The  criminal  law 
bore  upon  him ;  only  the  civil  law  applied  to  the  employer. 
Mr.  Plimsoll  actually  found  cases  of  seamen  sentenced  to 
prison  because  they  refused  to  sail  in  crazy  ships,  which,  when 
they  put  to  sea,  never  touched  a  port  but  went  down  in  mid- 
ocean.  Letters  were  found  in  the  pockets  of  drowned  seamen 
v/liich  showed  that  they  had  made  their  friends  aware  of  their 
forebodings  as  to  the  condition  of  the  vessel  that  was  to  be 
their  coffin.  Mr.  Plimsoll  began  a  regular  crusade  against 
certain  shipowners.  He  published  a  book  called,  '  Our  Seamen, 
an  Appeal,'  in  which  he  made  the  most  startling,  and  it  must 
be  added  the  most  sweeping,  charges.  Courts  of  law  were 
invoked  to  deal  with  his  assertions ;  the  authority  of  Parlia- 
ment was  called  on  to  protect  shipowning  members  against 
the  violence  of  the  irrepressible  philanthropist.  Mr.  Plimsoll 
was  clearly  wrong  in  some  of  his  charges  against  individuals, 
but  a  very  general  opinion  prevailed  that  he  was  only  too  just 
in  his  condemnation  of  the  system.  Mr.  Plimsoll  brought  in 
a  bill  for  the  better  protection  of  the  lives  of  seamen.  It  pro- 
posed a  compulsory  survey  of  all  ships  before  leaving  port, 
various  precautions  against  overloading,  the  restriction  of 
deck-loading,  and  the  compulsory  painting  of  a  load  line,  the 
position  of  which  was  to  be  determined  by  legislation.  This 
measure  was  strongly  opposed  by  the  shipowners  in  the  House, 
and  by  many  others  as  v/ell  as  they,  who  regarded  it  as  too 
stringent,  and  who  also  feared  that  by  putting  too  much  re- 
sponsibility on  the  Government  it  would  take  all  responsibility 
off  the  shipowners.  The  bill  came  to  the  test  of  a  division 
on  June  24,  1874,  and  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  only 
three,  170  voting  for  it  and  173  against.  The  Government 
then  recognising  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and  the  strong 
feeling  which  prevailed  in  the  country  with  regard  to  it, 
introduced  a  Merchant  Shipping  Bill  of  their  own  in  the 
session  of  1875.  It  did  not  go  nearly  so  far  as  Mr.  Plimsoll 
would  have  desired,  but  it  did  promise  to  be  at  least  part  of  a 
series  of  legislation  which  further  developed  might  have 
accomplished  the  object.  Such  as  it  was,  however,  the 
Government  did  not  press  it,  and  towards  the  end  of  July  Mr. 
Disraeli  announced  that  they  would  not  go  further  that  year 
with  the  measure. 

The  22nd  of  July  saw  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  scenea 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD,  4^3 

that  ever  took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Mr.  PHmsoll, 
under  the  mfluence  of  disappomtment  and  of  anger,  seemed 
to  have  lost  all  self-control.  He  denomiced  some  of  the  ship- 
owners of  that  House  ;  he  threatened  to  name  and  expose 
them  ;  he  called  them  villains  who  had  sent  brave  men  to 
death.  When  interrupted  by  the  Speaker,  and  told  that  he 
must  not  apply  the  term  villains  to  members  of  the  House,  he 
repeated  again  and  again,  and  in  the  most  vociferous  tones, 
that  they  were  villains,  and  that  he  would  abide  by  his  words. 
He  refused  to  recognise  the  authority  of  the  Speaker.  He 
shouted,  shook  his  fist  at  the  leading  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  rushed  out  of  the  House  in  a  state  of  wild  excite- 
ment. Thereupon  Mr.  Disraeli  moved,  '  that  the  Speaker  do 
reprimand  Mr.  Plimsoll  for  his  disorderly  behaviour.'  ]\Ir. 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  one  of  the  Home  Eule  Members,  returned  for 
the  first  time  at  the  general  election,  a  man  of  remarkable 
eloquence  and  of  high  character,  interposed  on  behalf  of  Mr. 
Plimsoll.  He  pleaded  that  Mr.  Plimsoll  was  seriously  ill  and 
hardly  able  to  account  for  his  actions,  owing  to  mental  excite- 
ment arismg  from  an  overwrought  system,  and  from  the 
intensity  of  his  zeal  in  the  cause  of  the  merchant  seamen. 
He  asked  that  a  week  should  be  given  Mr.  Plimsoll  to  consider 
his  position.  Mr.  Fawcett  and  other  members  made  a  similar 
appeal,  and  the  Government  consented  to  postpone  a  decision 
of  the  question  for  a  week.  Mr.  Plimsoll  had  offended  against 
the  rules,  the  traditions,  and  the  dignity  of  the  House, 
and  many  even  of  those  who  sympathised  with  his  general 
purpose  thought  he  had  damaged  his  cause  and  ruined  his 
individual  position.  Nothing,  however,  could  be  more  extra- 
ordinary and  unexpected  than  the  result.  It  was  one  of  those 
occasions  in  which  the  public  out  of  doors  showed  that  they 
could  get  to  the  real  heart  of  a  question  more  quickly  and  more 
clearly  than  Parliament  itself.  Out  of  doors  it  was  thoroughly 
understood  that  Mr.  Plimsoll  was  too  sweeping  in  his  charges ; 
that  he  was  entirely  mistaken  in  some  of  them  ;  that  he  had 
denounced  men  who  did  not  deserve  denunciation ;  that  his 
behaviour  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  a  gross  offence 
against  order.  But  the  difference  between  the  public  and  the 
House  of  Commons  was,  that  while  understanding  and  ad- 
mitting all  this,  the  public  clearly  saw  that  as  to  the  main 
question  at  issue  Mr.  Plimsoll  was  entirely  in  the  right. 
The  country  was  therefore  determined  to  stand  by  him. 

Great  meetings  were  held  all  over  England  during  the  next 


404    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.     CH.  xxvi. 

few  days,  at  everyone  of  which  those  who  were  present  pledged 
themselves  to  assist  Mr.  Plimsoll  in  his  general  object  and 
policy.  The  result  was  that  when  Mr.  Plimsoll  appeared  in 
the  House  of  Commons  the  week  after,  and  in  a  very  full  and 
handsome  manner  made  apology  for  his  offences  against  Par- 
liamentary order,  it  was  apparent  to  everyone  in  the  House 
and  out  of  it  that  he  was  master  of  the  situation,  and  that 
the  Government  would  have  to  advance  with  more  or  less  rapid 
strides  along  the  path  where  he  was  leading.  Finally,  the 
Government  brought  in,  and  forcibly  pushed  through,  a  Mer- 
chant Shipping  Bill,  which  met  for  the  moment  some  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  case.  The  Government  afterwards  promised 
to  supplement  it  by  legislation,  regulating  in  some  way  the 
system  of  maritime  insurances.  Other  things,  however,  in- 
terfered with  the  carrying  out  of  the  Government  proposals, 
and  the  regulation  of  maritime  insurance  was  forgotten. 

The  Government  seemed  for  a  while  inclined  to  keep 
plodding  steadily  on  with  quiet  schemes  of  domestic  legisla- 
tion. They  tinkered  at  a  measure  for  the  security  of  improve- 
ments made  by  agricultural  tenants.  They  made  it  purely 
permissive,  and  therefore  thoroughly  worthless.  This  one 
defect  tainted  many  of  their  schemes  of  domestic  reform — 
this  inclination  to  make  every  reform  permissive.  It  seemed 
to  be  thought  a  clever  stroke  of  management  to  introduce  a 
measure  professedly  for  the  removal  of  some  inequality  or 
other  grievance,  and  then  to  make  it  permissive  and  allow  all 
parties  concerned  to  contract  themselves  out  of  it.  Mr.  Cross, 
the  Home  Secretary,  however,  proved  a  very  efficient  Minister, 
and  introduced  many  useful  schemes  of  legislation,  among  the 
rest  an  Artisans'  Dwelling  Bill,  the  object  of  which  was  to  enable 
local  authorities  to  pull  down  houses  unfit  for  human  habitation 
and  rebuild  on  the  sites.  The  Government  made  experiments 
in  reaction  here  and  there.  They  restored  the  appellate  juris- 
diction of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  had  seemed  actually 
doomed.  They  got  into  some  trouble  by  issuing  a  circular  to 
captains  of  war  vessels  on  the  subject  of  the  reception  of  slaves 
on  board  their  ships.  The  principle  which  the  circular  laid 
down  was  in  substance  a  full  recognition  of  the  rights  of  a 
slave-owner  over  a  fugitive  slave.  The  country  rose  in  indig- 
nation against  this  monstrous  reversal  of  England's  time- 
honoured  policy ;  and  the  circular  was  withdrawn  and  a  new 
one  issued.  This  too  proved  unsatisfactory.  It  was  impos- 
sible for  the  Government  to  resist  the  ^jopular  demand :  soma 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD,  405 

of  their  owii  men  in  the  House  of  Commons  fell  away  from 
them  and  insisted  that  the  old  principle  must  be  kept  up,  and 
that  the  slave -owner  shall  not  take  his  slave  from  under  the 
shadow  of  the  English  flag. 

All  this  time  Mr.  Gladstone  had  withdra^vn  from  the  paths 
of  Parliamentary  life  and  had  taken  to  polemical  literature. 
He  was  stirring  up  a  heated  controversy  with  Cardinal 
Manning,  Dr.  Newman,  and  other  great  controversialists,  by 
endeavouring  to  prove  that  absolute  obedience  to  the  Catholic 
Church  was  henceforward  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of 
freedom,  and  that  the  doctrine  of  papal  infallibility  was  every- 
where the  enemy  of  liberty.  Grave  politicians  were  not  a  little 
scandalised  at  the  position  taken  by  a  statesman  who  only 
the  other  day  was  Prime  Minister.  It  seemed  clear  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  never  meant  to  take  any  leading  part  in  politics 
agam.  Surely,  it  was  said,  if  he  had  the  remotest  idea  of 
entering  the  political  field  anew,  he  never  would  have  thus 
gratuitously  given  offence  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  subjects 
of  the  Queen  and  to  all  the  Catholic  Sovereigns  and  Ministers 
of  Europe.  Most  of  his  friends  shook  their  heads  ;  most  of 
his  enemies  were  delighted.  There  was  some  difficulty  at  first 
about  the  choice  of  a  successor  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  Two  men 
stood  intellectually  high  above  all  other  possible  competitors — 
Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Lowe.  But  it  was  well  known  that  Mr. 
Bright's  health  would  not  allow  him  to  undertake  such  labo- 
rious duties,  and  Mr.  Lowe  was  universally  assumed  to  have 
none  of  the  leader's  qualities.  Sir  William  Harcourt  had  not 
yet  weight  enough  ;  neither  had  Mr.  Goschen.  The  real  choice 
was  between  Mr.  Forster  and  Lord  Hartington.  Mr.  Forster, 
however,  knew  that  he  had  estranged  the  Nonconformists  from 
him  by  the  course  he  had  taken  in  his  education  measures,  and 
he  withdrew  from  what  he  thought  an  untenable  position. 
Lord  Hartington  was  therefore  arrived  at  by  a  sort  of  process 
of  exhaustion.  He  proved  much  better  than  his  promise.  He 
had  a  robust,  straightforward  nature,  and  by  constant  prac- 
tice he  made  himself  an  effective  debater.  Men  liked  the 
courage  and  the  candid  admission  of  his  own  deficiencies,  with 
which  he  braced  himself  up  to  his  most  difficult  task — to  take 
the  place  of  Gladstone  in  debate  and  to  confront  Disraeli. 

A  change  soon  came  over  the  spirit  of  the  Administration. 
It  began  to  be  seen  more  and  more  clearly  that  Mr.  Disraeli 
had  not  come  into  office  merely  to  consider  prosaic  measures 
of  domestic  legislation.     His  inclinations  were  all  for  the 


4o6    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OIVAT  TIMES.     CH.  xxvi. 

broader  and  more  brilliant  fields  of  foreign  politics.  The 
marked  contrast  between  the  political  aptitudes  and  tastes 
of  Mr.  Disraeli  and  Mr.  Gladstone  came  in  to  influence 
still  further  the  difference  between  the  policy  of  the  new 
Government  and  that  of  its  predecessor.  Mr.  Gladstone 
delighted  in  the  actual  work  and  business  of  administration. 
Now  Mr.  Disraeli  had  neither  taste  nor  aptitude  for  the  details 
of  administration.  He  enjoyed  administration  on  the  large 
scale ;  he  loved  political  debate ;  he  liked  to  make  a  great 
speech.  But  when  he  was  not  engaged  in  his  favourite  Avork 
he  preferred  to  be  doing  nothing.  It  was  natural  therefore 
that  Mr.  Gladstone's  Administration  should  be  one  of  practical 
work ;  that  it  should  introduce  Bills  to  deal  with  perplexed 
and  complicated  grievances  ;  that  it  should  take  care  to  keep 
the  finances  of  the  country  in  good  condition.  Mr.  Disraeli 
had  no  personal  interest  in  such  things.  He  loved  to  feed 
his  mind  on  gorgeous  imperial  fancies.  It  pleased  him  to 
think  that  England  was,  wliat  he  would  persist  in  calling  her, 
an  Asiatic  power,  and  that  he  was  administering  the  affairs  of 
a  great  Oriental  Empire.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  never  until  now 
had  an  opportunity  of  showing  what  his  own  style  of  states- 
manship would  be.  He  had  always  been  in  office  only,  but 
not  in  power.  Now  he  had  for  the  first  time  a  strong  majority 
behind  him.  He  could  do  as  he  liked.  He  had  the  full  con- 
fidence of  the  Sovereign.  His  party  were  now  wholly  devoted 
to  him.  They  began  to  regard  him  as  infallible.  Even  those 
wdio  detested  still  feared  ;  men  believed  in  his  powder  none  the 
less  because  they  had  no  faith  in  his  policy.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  he  had  no  longer  any  rival  to  dread  in  debate.  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  withdrawn  from  the  active  business  of  politics ; 
Mr.  Bright  was  not  strong  enough  in  physical  health  to  care 
much  for  controversy ;  there  was  no  one  else  who  could  by 
any  possibility  be  regarded  as  a  proper  adversary  for  Mr. 
Disraeli.  The  new  Prime  Minister  therefore  had  everything 
his  own  way.  He  soon  showed  what  sort  of  statesmanship  he 
liked  best.  In  politics  as  in  art  the  weaknesses  of  the  master  of 
a  school  are  most  clearly  seen  in  the  performances  of  his  imita- 
tors and  admirers.  A  distinguished  member  of  Mr.  Disraeli's 
Cabinet  proclaimed  that  since  the  Conservatives  came  into 
office  there  had  been  something  stirring  in  the  very  air  which 
spoke  of  imperial  enterprise.  The  Elizabethan  days  were 
to  be  restored,  it  was  proudly  declared.  England  was  to  re- 
Bimie  her  hig]i  place  among  tJie  natiovs.    She  was  to  make  her 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BE  A  CONS  FIELD.  407 

influence  felt  all  over  the  world,  but  more  especially  on  the 
European  continent.  The  Cabinets  and  Chancelleries  of 
Europe  were  to  learn  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  any  more 
without  the  authority  of  England.  '  A  spirited  foreign  policy ' 
was  to  be  inaugurated,  a  new  era  was  to  begin. 

Perhaps  the  first  indication  of  the  new  foreign  policy  was 
given  by  the  purchase  of  the  shares  which  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt  held  in  the  Suez  Canal.     The  Khedive  of  Egypt  held 
nearly  half  the  400,000  original  shares  in  the  Canal,  and  the 
Khedive  was  going  every  day  faster  and  faster  on  the  road  to 
ruin.     He  was   on   the  brink  of  bankruptcy.     His  176,000 
shares  came  into  the  market ;  and  on  November  25,  1875,  the 
world  was  astonished  by  the  news  that  the  English  Govern- 
ment had  turned  stock-jobber  and  bought  them  for  four  millions 
sterling.     The  idea  was   not  the  Government's  own.     The 
editor  of  a  London  evening  paper,  Mr.  Frederick  Greenwood, 
was  the  man  to  whom  the  thought  first  occurred.     He  made 
it  known  to  the  Prime  Minister,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  was  caught 
by  the  proposition,  and  the  shares  were  instantly  bought  up 
in  the  name  of  the  English  Government.    Seldom  in  our  time 
has  any  act  on  the  part  of  a  Government  been  received  with 
such   general  approbation.     The  London  newspapers  broke 
into  a  chorus  of  applause.     The  London  clubs  were  delighted. 
The  air  rang  with  praises  of  the  courage  and  spirit  shown  by 
the  Ministry.     If  here  and  there  a  faint  voice  was  raised  to 
suggest  that  the  purchase  was  a  foolish  proceeding,  that  it 
was   useless,  that   it  was  undignified,   a  shout   of  offended 
patriotism  drowned  the  ignoble  remonstrance.     The  act  is  of 
historical  importance  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  strokes  made  by 
the  Government  in  foreign  policy,  each  of  which  came  in  the 
nature  of  a  surprise  to  ParHament  and  the  country.     It  is 
probable  that  Mr.  Disraeli  counted  upon  making  his  Govern- 
ment popular  by  affording  to  the  public  at  intervals  the  exciting 
luxury  of  a  new  sensation.     The  public  were  undoubtedly 
rather  tired  of  having  been  so  long  quiet  and  prosperous. 
They  liked  to  know  that  their  Government  was  doing  some- 
thing.    Mr.  Disraeli  led  the  fashion,  and  stimulated  the  public 
taste.     The  Government  tried  to  establish  a  South  African 
Confederation,  and  sent  out  Mr.  Froude,  the  romantic  histo- 
rian, to  act  as  the  representative  of  their  policy.    The  Govern- 
ment made  some  changes  in  the  relations  of  the  India  Office 
here  to  the  Viceroy  in  Calcutta,  which  gave  much  greater 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  for  India.     One  im- 


4oS    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES.     CH.  xxvi. 

mediate  result  of  this  was  the  retirement  of  Lord  Northbrook, 
a  prudent  and  able  man,  before  the  term  of  his  administration 
had  actually  arrived.  Mr.  Disraeli  gave  the  country  another 
little  surprise.  He  appointed  Lord  Lytton  Viceroy  of  India. 
Lord  Lytton  had  been  previously  known  chiefly  as  the  writer 
of  pretty  and  sensuous  verse,  and  the  author  of  one  or  two 
showy  and  feeble  novels.  The  world  was  a  good  deal  astonished 
at  the  appointment  of  such  a  man  to  an  office  which  had 
strained  the  intellectual  energies  of  men  like  Dalhousie  and 
Canning  and  Elgin.  But  people  were  in  general  willing  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Disraeli  knew  Lord  Lytton  to  be  possessed  of 
a  gift  of  administration  which  the  world  outside  had  not  any 
chance  of  discerning  in  him.  There  was  something  too  which 
gratified  many  persons  in  the  appointment.  It  seemed  gracious 
and  kindly  of  Mr.  Disraeli  thus  to  recognise  and  exalt  the  son 
of  his  old  friend  and  companion  in  arms.  There  was  a  feeling 
all  over  England  which  wished  well  to  the  appointment  and 
sincerely  hoped  it  might  prove  a  success. 

Another  little  sensation  was  created  by  the  invention  of  a 
new  title  for  the  Queen.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Session  of 
1876  Mr.  Disraeli  announced  that  the  Queen  was  to  be  called 

*  Empress  of  India.'  A  strong  dislike  was  felt  to  this  super- 
fluous and  tawdry  addition  to  the  ancient  style  of  the  sovereigns 
of  England.  The  educated  feeling  of  the  country  rose  in  revolt 
against  this  preposterous  innovation.  Some  of  the  debates  in 
the  House  of  Commons  were  full  of  fire  and  spirit,  and  recalled 
the  memory  of  more  stirring  times  when  the  Liberal  party 
was  in  heart  and  strength.  Mr.  Lowe  spoke  against  the  new 
title  with  a  vivacity  and  a  bitterness  of  sarcasm  that  reminded 
listeners  of  his  famous  opposition  to  the  Keform  Bill  of  1866. 
Mr.  Joseph  Cowen,  Member  for  Newcastle,  who  had  been  in 
Parliament  for  some  sessions  without  making  any  mark,  sud- 
denly broke  into  the  debates  with  a  speech  which  at  once  won 
him  the  name  of  an  orator,  and  which  a  leading  member  of 
the  Government,  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy,  described  as  having 

*  electrified '  the  House.  Mr.  Disraeli  chaffed  the  Opposition 
rather  than  reasoned  with  it.  He  cited  one  justification  of 
the  title,  a  letter  from  a  young  lady  at  school  who  had  directed 
his  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  *  Guy's  Geography  '  the  Queen 
was  already  described  as  Empress  of  India.  This  style  of 
argument  did  not  add  much  to  the  dignity  of  the  debate.  Mr. 
Lowe  spoke  witli  justifiable  anger  and  contempt  of  the  Prime 
Minister's  inti'oducing  '  the  lispings  of  the  nursery  '  into  a 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD.  409 

grave  discussion,  and  asked  whether  Mr.  Disraeli  wished  to 
make  the  House  in  general  think  as  meanly  of  the  subject  as 
he  did  himself.  The  Government,  of  course,  carried  their 
point.  They  deferred  so  far  to  public  feeling  as  to  put  into 
the  Act  a  provision  against  the  use  of  the  Imperial  title  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  There  was  indeed  a  desire  that  its  use 
ghould  be  prohibited  everywhere  except  in  India,  and  most  of 
the  members  of  the  Opposition  were  at  first  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Government  had  undertaken  to  do  so  much. 
But  the  only  restriction  introduced  into  the  Act  had  reference 
to  the  employment  of  the  additional  title  in  these  islands. 
The  unlucky  subject  was  the  occasion  of  a  new  and  a  some- 
what unseemly  dispute  afterwards.  In  a  speech  which  he 
delivered  to  a  public  meeting  at  East  Ketford,  Mr.  Lowe  made 
an  unfortunate  statement  to  the  effect  that  the  Queen  had 
endeavoured  to  induce  two  former  Ministers  to  confer  upon 
her  this  new  title  and  had  not  succeeded.  Mr.  Lowe  proved  to 
be  absolutely  wrong  in  his  assertion.  No  attempt  of  the  kind 
had  ever  been  made  by  the  Queen.  Mr.  Disraeli  found  his 
enemy  delivered  into  his  hands.  The  question  was  inciden- 
tally and  indirectly  brought  up  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
May  2,  1876,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  seized  the  opportunity.  He 
denomiced  Mr.  Lowe,  thmidered  at  him  from  across  the  table, 
piled  up  a  heap  of  negative  evidence  to  show  that  his  assertion 
could  not  be  true,  and  at  the  very  close  of  his  speech  came 
down  on  the  hapless  offender  with  the  crushing  announce- 
ment that  he  had  the  authority  of  the  Queen  herself  to  con- 
tradict the  statement.  Mr.  Lowe  sat  like  one  crushed,  while 
Mr.  DisraeK  roared  at  him  and  banged  the  table  at  him.  He 
said  nothing  that  night ;  but  on  the  following  Thursday  even- 
ing he  made  an  apology,  which  assuredly  did  not  want  com- 
pleteness or  humility.  The  title  which  was  the  occasion  for 
so  much  debate  has  not  come  into  greater  popular  favour  since 
that  time.  The  country  soon  forgot  all  about  the  matter. 
More  serious  questions  were  coming  up  to  engage  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public. 

When  Mr.  Disraeli  was  pressed  during  the  debates  on  the 
Eoyal  Title  to  give  some  really  serious  reason  for  the  change, 
it  was  observed  as  significant  that  he  made  reference  more  or 
less  vague  to  the  necessity  of  asserting  the  position  of  the 
Sovereign  of  England  as  supreme  ruler  over  the  whole  empire 
of  India.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  purposely  touched  a  chord  which 
\yas  sure  to  vibrate  all  over  the  country.     The  necessity  to 

18 


410    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxvi. 

which  he  alluded  was  the  necessity  of  setting  up  the  flag  of 
England  on  the  citadel  of  England's  Asiatic  Empire  as  a 
warning  to  the  one  enemy  whom  the  English  people  believed 
they  had  reason  to  dread.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  raised  what  has 
been  called  the  Eussian  spectre.  A  great  crisis  was  now  again 
at  hand.  During  all  the  interval  since  the  Crimean  War 
Turkey  had  been  occupied  in  throwing  away  every  opportunity 
for  her  political  and  social  reorganisation.  There  had  been 
insurrections  in  Crete,  in  the  Herzegovina,  in  other  parts  of  the 
provinces  misgoverned  by  Turkey ;  and  they  had  been  put  down, 
whenever  the  Porte  was  strong  enough,  with  a  barbarous 
severity.  Kussia  meanwhile  was  returning  to  the  position  she 
occupied  before  the  Crimean  War.  She  had  lately  been  making 
rapid  advances  into  Central  Asia.  Post  after  post  which  were 
once  believed  to  be  secure  from  her  approach  were  dropping 
into  her  hands.  Her  goal  of  one  day  became  her  starting-point 
of  the  next.  Early  in  July  1875,  Lord  Derby  received  an 
account  of  the  disturbances  in  the  Herzegovina,  and  something 
like  an  organised  insurrection  in  Bosnia.  The  provinces  in- 
habited by  men  of  alien  race  and  religion  over  which  Turkey 
rules  have  always  been  the  source  of  her  weakness.  Fate  has 
given  to  the  most  incapable  and  worthless  Government  in  the 
world  the  task  of  ruling  over  a  great  variety  of  nationalities 
and  of  creeds  that  agree  in  hardly  anything  but  in  their  com- 
mon detestation  of  Ottoman  rule.  The  Slav  dreads  and  detests 
the  Greek.  The  Greek  despises  the  Slav.  The  Albanian  objects 
alike  to  Slav  and  to  Greek.  The  Mohammedan  Albanian  detests 
the  Catholic  Albanian.  The  Slavs  are  dra^vn  towards  Russia 
by  affinity  of  race  and  of  religion.  But  this  very  fact,  which 
makes  in  one  sense  their  political  strength,  brings  w^ith  it  a 
certain. condition  of  weakness,  because  by  making  them  more 
formidable  to  Greeks  and  to  Germans  it  increases  the  dislike  of 
their  growing  power,  and  the  determination  to  oppose  it.  The 
settlement  made  by  the  Crimean  War  had  since  that  time 
been  gradually  breaking  down.  Servia  was  an  independent 
State  in  all  but  the  name.  The  Danubian  provinces,  which 
were  to  have  been  governed  by  separate  rulers,  united  them- 
selves first  under  one  ruler  and  then  in  one  political  system, 
and  at  last  became  the  sovereign  State  of  Roumania  under  the 
Prussian  Prince,  Charles  of  Hohenzollern.  Thus  the  result 
which  most  of  the  European  Powers  at  the  time  of  the  Con- 
gress of  Paris  endeavoured  to  prevent  was  successfully  accom- 
plished in  spite  of  their  inclinations.     The  efforts  to  keep 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD.  411 

Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  quiet  subjection  to  the  Sultan 
proved  a  miserable  failure.  The  insurrection  which  now  broke 
out  in  Herzegovina  spread  with  rapidity.  The  Turkish  states- 
men insisted  that  it  was  receiving  help  not  only  from  Russia 
but  from  the  subjects  of  Austria  as  well  as  from  Servia  and 
Montenegro.  An  appeal  was  made  to  the  English  Govern- 
ment to  use  its  influence  with  Austria  in  order  to  prevent  the 
insurgents  fronl  receiving  any  assistance  from  across  the 
Austrian  frontier.  Servia  and  Montenegro  were  appealed  to 
in  a  similar  manner.  Lord  Derby  seems  to  have  acted  with 
indecision  and  with  feebleness.  He  does  not  appear  to  have 
appreciated  the  immediate  greatness  of  the  crisis,  and  he 
offended  popular  feeling,  and  even  the  public  conscience,  by 
urgmg  on  the  Porte  that  the  best  they  could  do  was  to  put 
down  the  insurrection  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  not  allow 
it  to  swell  to  the  magnitude  of  a  question  of  European 
interest. 

The  insurrection  continued  to  spread,  and  at  last  it  was 
determined  by  some  of  the  Western  Powers  that  the  time  had 
come  for  European  intervention.  Count  Andrassy,  the  Aus- 
trian Minister,  drew  up  a  Note,  addressed  to  the  Porte,  in 
which  Austria,  Germany,  and  Russia  united  in  a  declaration 
that  the  promises  of  reform  made  by  the  Porte  had  not  been 
carried  into  effect,  and  that  some  combined  action  by  the 
Powers  of  Europe  was  necessary  to  insist  on  the  fulfilment  of 
the  many  engagements  which  Turkey  had  made  and  broken. 
This  Note  was  dated  December  30,  1875,  and  it  was  commu- 
nicated to  the  Powers  which  had  signed  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 
France  and  Italy  were  ready  at  once  to  join  it ;  but  England 
delayed.  In  fact  Lord  Derby  held  off  so  long  that  it  was  not 
until  he  had  received  a  despatch  from  the  Porte  itself  request- 
ing his  Government  to  join  in  the  Note,  that  he  at  last  con- 
sented to  take  part  in  the  remonstrance.  Rightly  or  wrongly 
the  statesmen  of  Constantinople  had  got  it  into  their  heads 
that  England  was  their  devoted  friend,  bomid  by  her  own 
interests  to  protect  them  against  whatever  opposition.  In- 
stead therefore  of  regarding  England's  co-operation  in  the 
Andrassy  Note  as  one  other  influence  brought  to  compel  them 
to  fulfil  their  engagements,  they  seem  to  have  accepted  it  as 
a  secret  force  working  on  their  side  to  enable  them  to  escape 
from  their  responsibilities.  Lord  Derby  joined  in  the  An- 
drassy Note.  It  was  sent  to  the  Porte.  The  Ottoman 
Government  promised  to  carry  out  in  the  readiest  manner  the 


412     A   SHORT  HJ STORY  OF  OUR   OWN  TIMES,     ch.  xxvi. 

suggestions  which  the  Note  contained,  and  did  nothing  more 
than  promise.  After  a  few  weeks  it  became  perfectly  evident 
that  she  had  not  only  done  nothing,  but  had  never  intended 
to  do  anything.  Eussia,  therefore,  proposed  that  the  three 
Imperial  Ministers  of  the  Continent  should  meet  at  Berlin 
and  consider  what  steps  should  be  taken  in  order  to  make  the 
Andrassy  Note  a  reality.  A  document,  called  the  Berlin 
Memorandum,  was  drawn  up,  in  which  the  three  Powers  pro- 
iposed  to  consider  the  measures  by  which  to  enforce  on  Turkey 
the  fulfilment  of  her  broken  promises.  It  was  distinctly 
implied  that  shoald  Turkey  fail  to  comply,  force  would  be 
used  to  compel  her.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that 
this  was  a  menace  which  would  of  itself  have  ensured  the 
object.  It  is  out  of  the  question  to  suppose  that  Turkey  would 
have  thought  of  resisting  the  concerted  action  of  England, 
France,  Austria,  Germany,  Eussia,  and  Italy. 

Unfortunately,  however,  Lord  Derby  and  the  English 
Government  refused  to  join  in  the  Berlin  Memorandum.  The 
refusal  of  England  was  fatal  to  the  project.  The  Memoran- 
dum was  never  presented.  Concert  between  the  European 
Powers  was  for  a  time  at  an  end.  From  that  moment  every- 
one in  Western  Europe  knew  that  war  was  certain  in  the  East. 
A  succession  of  startling  events  kept  public  attention  on  the 
strain.  There  was  an  outbreak  of  Mussulman  fanaticism  at 
Salonica,  and  the  French  and  German  Consuls  were  mur- 
dered. A  revolutionary  demonstration  took  place  in  Constan- 
tinople, and  the  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  was  dethroned.  The 
miserable  Abdul  Aziz  committed  suicide  in  a  day  or  two  after. 
This  was  the  Sultan  who  had  been  received  in  England  with 
so  much  ofiicial  ceremony  and  public  acclaim.  His  nephew 
Murad  was  made  Sultan  in  his  place.  Murad  reigned  only 
three  months  and  was  then  dethroned,  and  his  brother  Hamid 
put  in  his  place.  Suddenly  the  attention  of  the  English 
public  was  called  away  to  events  more  terrible  than  palace 
revolutions  in  Constantinople.  An  insurrection  had  broken 
out  in  Bulgaria,  and  the  Turkish  Government  sent  large 
numbers  of  Bashi-Bazouks  and  other  irregular  troops  to  crush 
it.  They  did  not,  however,  stay  their  hand  when  the  insur- 
rection had  been  crushed.  Eepression  soon  turned  into 
massacre.  Eumours  began  to  reach  Constantinople  of  hideous 
wholesale  murders  of  women  and  children  committed  in  Bul- 
garia. The  Constantinople  correspondent  of  the  Daily  Netvs 
investigated  the  evidence,  and  found  it  but  too  tr^ie.    In  a  few 


CH.  XXVI.  LORD  BEACONSFIELD.  413 

days  after  accounts  were  laid  before  the  English  public  of  the 
deeds  which  ever  since  have  been  known  as  '  the  Bulgarian 
atrocities.' 

Mr.  Disraeli  at  first  'treated  these  terrible  stories  with  a 

r 

levity  which  jarred  harshly  on  the  ears  of  almost  all  his  list- 
eners. It  was  plain  that  he  did  not  believe  them  or  attach 
any  importance  to  them.  He  took  no  trouble  to  examine  the 
testimony  on  which  they  rested.  He,  therefore,  thought  him- 
self warranted  in  dealing  with  them  as  if  they  were  merely 
stories  to  laugh  at.  Mr.  Disraeli  had  always  the  faculty  of 
persuading  himself  to  believe  or  disbelieve  anything  according 
as  he  liked.  But  the  subject  proved  to  be  far  too  serious  for 
light-minded  treatment.  Mr.  Baring,  the  English  Consul, 
sent  out  specially  to  Bulgaria  to  make  inquiries,  and  who  was 
supposed  to  be  in  general  sympathy  with  Turkey,  reported  that 
no  fewer  than  twelve  thousand  persons  had  been  killed  in  the 
district  of  Philippopolis.  The  defenders  of  the  Turks  insisted 
that  the  only  deaths  were  those  which  took  place  in  fight ; 
insurgents  on  one  side,  Turkish  soldiers  on  the  other.  But 
Mr.  Baring,  as  well  as  Mr.  MacGahan,  the  Daily  Neivs  cor- 
respondent, saw  whole  masses  of  the  dead  bodies  of  women 
and  children  piled  up  in  places  where  the  corpses  of  no  com- 
batants were  to  be  seen.  The  women  and  children  were  simply 
massacred.  The  Turkish  Government  may  not  have  known 
at  first  of  the  deeds  that  were  done  by  their  soldiers.  But  it 
is  certain  that  after  the  facts  had  been  forced  upon  their  atten- 
tion, they  conferred  new  honours  upon  the  chief  perpetrators 
of  the  crimes  which  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  all  Europe. 

Mr.  Bright  happily  described  the  agitation  Avliich  followed 
in  England  as  an  uprising  of  the  English  people.  At  first  it 
was  an  uprising  without  a  leader.  Soon,  however,  it  had  a 
chief  of  incomparable  energy  and  power.  Mr.  Gladstone 
came  out  of  his  semi-retirement.  He  flung  himself  into  the 
agitation  against  Turkey  with  the  impassioned  energy  of  a 
youth.  He  made  speeches  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  out 
of  it ;  he  attended  monster  meetings  indoors  and  out  of 
doors ;  he  published  pamphlets,  he  wrote  letters,  he  brought 
forward  motions  in  Parliament ;  he  denounced  the  crimes  of 
Turkey,  and  the  policy  which  would  support  Turkey,  with  an 
eloquence  that  for  a  time  set  England  aflame.  After  a  while 
no  doubt  there  set  in  a  sort  of  reaction  against  the  fervent 
mood.  The  country  could  not  long  continue  in  this  white 
heat,  of  excitement.  Mr.  Disraeli  and  his  supporters  were  able 


414    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR   OWN   TIMES,     cii.  xxvi. 

to  work  with  great  effect  on  that  strong  deep-rooted  feehng  of 
the  modern  Englishman,  his  distrust  and  dread  of  Russia. 
Mr.  Gladstone  had  in  his  pamphlet,  '  Bulgarian  Horrors,  and 
the  Question  of  the  East,'  insisted  that  the  only  way  to  secure 
any  permanent  good  for  the  Christian  provinces  of  Turkey 
was  to  turn  the  Turldsh  officials  '  bag  and  baggage '  out  of 
them.  The  cry  went  forth  that  he  had  called  for  the  expulsion 
of  the  Turks  from  Europe,  and  that  the  moment  the  Turks 
went  out  of  Constantinople  the  Russians  must  come  in. 
Nothing  could  have  been  better  suited  to  rouse  up  reaction 
and  alarm.  A  sudden  and  strong  revulsion  of  feeling  took 
place  in  favour  of  the  Government.  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
honestly  regarded  by  millions  of  Englishmen  as  the  friend  and 
the  instrument  of  Russia,  Mr.  Disraeli  as  the  champion  of 
England,  and  the  enemy  of  England's  enemy. 

Mr.  Disraeli  ?  By  this  time  there  was  no  Mr.  Disraeli. 
The  11th  of  August,  187G,  was  an  important  day  in  the  par- 
liamentary history  of  England.  Mr.  Disraeli  made  then  his 
last  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  sustained  and 
defended  the  policy  of  the  Government  as  an  Imperial  policy, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  maintain  the  Empire  of  England. 
The  House  of  Commons  little  knew  that  this  speech  was  the 
last  it  was  to  hear  from  him.  The  secret  was  well  kept. 
It  was  made  known  only  to  the  newspapers  that  night.  Next 
morning  all  England  knew  that  Benjamin  Disraeli  had 
become  Earl  of  Beaconsfield.  Everybody  was  well  satisfied 
that  if  Mr.  Disraeli  liked  an  earldom  he  should  have  it.  His 
political  career  had  had  claims  enough  to  any  reward  of  the 
kind  that  his  Sovereign  could  bestow.  If  he  had  battled  for 
honour  it  was  but  fair  that  he  should  have  the  prize.  Coming 
as  it  did  just  then  the  announcement  of  his  elevation  to  the 
peerage  seemed  like  a  defiance  flung  in  the  face  of  those  who 
would  arraign  his  policy.  The  attacks  made  on  Mr.  Disraeli 
were  to  be  answered  by  Lord  Beaconsfield ;  his  enemies  had 
become  his  footstool. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE   CONGRESS    OF    BERLIN. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  went  down  to  the  county  which  he  had 
represented  so  long,  and  made  a  farewell  speech  at  Aylesbury. 
The  speech  was  in  many  parts  worthy  of  the  occasion.     Un- 


CH.  XXVII.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERim,  4^5 

fortunately  Lord  Beaconsfield  soon  went  on  to  make  a  fierce 
attack  on  his  political  opponents.  The  controversy  between 
Lord  Beaconsfield  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  bitter  enough  before, 
became  still  more  bitter  now.  The  policy  each  represented  may 
be  described  in  a  few  very  summary  words.  Lord  Beaconsfield 
was  for  maintaining  Tm'key  at  all  risks  as  a  barrier  against 
Eussia.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  for  renouncing  all  responsibility 
for  Turkey  and  taking  the  consequences. 

The  common  expectation  was  soon  fulfilled.  At  the  close 
of  June  1876,  Servia  and  Montenegro  declared  war  agamst 
Turkey.  Servia's  struggle  was '  short.  At  the  begmning  of 
September  the  struggle  was  over,  and  Servia  was  practically 
at  Turkey's  feet.  The  hardy  Montenegrin  mountaineers 
held  their  own  stoutly  against  the  Turks  everywhere,  but 
they  could  not  seriously  influence  the  fortunes  of  a  war.  Eussia 
intervened  and  insisted  upon  an  armistice,  and  her  demand 
was  acceded  to  by  Turkey.  Meanwhile  the  general  feeling  in 
England  on  both  sides  was  growing  stronger  and  stronger. 
Public  .meetings  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  supporters  were  held  all 
over  the  country,  and  the  English  Government  was  urged  in 
the  most  emphatic  manner  to  bring  some  strong  influence  to 
bear  on  Turkey.  On  the  other  hand,  it  camiot  be  doubted 
that  the  common  suspicion  of  Eussia's  designs  began  to  grow 
more  keen  and  wakeful  than  ever.  Lord  Derby  frankly  made 
known  to  the  Emperor  Alexander  what  was  thought  or  feared 
in  England,  and  the  Emperor  replied  by  pledging  his  sacred 
Word  that  he  had  no  intention  of  occupying  Constantinople, 
and  that  if  he  were  compelled  by  events  to  occupy  any  part  oi 
Bulgaria,  it  should  be  only  provisionally,  and  until  the  safety 
of  the  Christians  should  be  secured.  Then  Lord  Derby  pro- 
posed that  a  Conference  of  the  European  Powers  should  be 
held  at  Constantinople  in  order  to  agree  upon  some  scheme 
which  should  provide  at  once  for  the  proper  government  of 
the  various  provinces  and  populations  subject  to  Turkey,  and 
at  the  same  time  for  the  maintenance  of  the  mdependence 
and  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  proposal  was 
accepted  by  all  the  Great  Powers,  and  on  November  8,  1876, 
it  was  announced  that  Lord  Salisbury  and  Sir  Henry  Elliott, 
the  English  Ambassador  at  Constantinople,  were  to  attend  as 
the  representatives  of  England. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  was  apparently  determined  to  recover 
the  popularity  that  had  been  somewhat  impaired  by  his  un- 
lucky way  of  dealing  with  the  massacres  of  Bulgaria.     Hia 


4 1 6     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxvil. 

plan  now  was  to  go  boldly  in  for  denunciation  of  Eussia. 
He  sometimes  talked  of  Eussia  as  lie  might  of  an  enemy  who 
had  already  declared  war  against  England.  The  prospects  of 
a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  European  controversy  seemed  to 
become  heavily  overclouded.  Lord  Beaconsfield  appeared  to 
be  holding  the  dogs  of  war  by  the  collar,  and  only  waiting  for 
the  convenient  moment  to  let  them  slip.  Everyone  knew 
that  some  of  his  colleagues,  Lord  Derby  for  example,  and 
Lord  Carnarvon,  were  opposed  to  any  thought  of  war,  and 
felt  almost  as  strongly  for  the  Christian  provinces  of  Turkey 
as  Mr.  Gladstone  did.  But  people  shook  their  heads  doubtfully 
when  it  was  asked  whether  Lord  Derby  or  Lord  Carnarvon, 
or  both  combined,  could  prevail  in  strength  of  will  against 
Lord  Beaconsfield. 

The  Conference  at  Constantinople  came  to  nothing.  The 
Turkish  statesmen  at  first  attempted  to  put  off  the  diplo- 
matists of  the  West  by  the  announcement  that  the  Sultan 
had  granted  a  Constitution  to  Turkey,  and  that  there  was  to 
be  a  Parliament  at  which  representatives  of  all  the  provinces 
were  to  speak  for  themselves.  There  was  in  fact  a  Turkish 
Parliament  called  together.  Of  course  the  Western  statesmen 
could  not  be  put  off  by  an  announcement  of  this  kind.  They 
knew  well  enough  what  a  Turkish  Parliament  must  mean. 
It  seems  almost  superfluous  to  say  that  the  Turkish  Parliament 
was  ordered  to  disappear  very  soon  after  the  occasion  passed 
away  for  trying  to  deceive  the  Great  European  Powers.  Evi- 
dently Turkey  had  got  it  into  her  head  that  the  English  Govern- 
ment would  at  the  last  moment  stand  by  her,  and  would  not 
permit  her  to  be  coerced.  She  refused  to  come  to  terms,  and 
the  Conference  broke  up  without  having  accomplished  any  good. 
New  attempts  at  arrangement  were  made  between  England, 
Eussia,  and  others  of  the  Great  Powers,  but  they  fell  through. 
Then  at  last,  on  April  24,  1877,  Eussia  declared  war  against 
Turkey,  and  on  June  27  a  Eussian  army  crossed  the  Danube 
and  moved  towards  the  Balkans,  meeting  with  comparatively 
little  resistance,  while  at  the  same  time  another  Eussian  force 
invaded  Asia  Minor. 

For  a  while  the  Eussians  seemed  likely  to  carry  all  before 
them.  But  they  had  made  the  one  great  mistake  of  altogether 
undervaluing  their  enemies.  Their  preparations  were  hasty 
and  imperfect.  The  Turks  turned  upon  them  unexpectedly 
and  made  a  gallant  and  almost  desperate  resistance.  One  of 
their  commanders,  Osman  Pasha,  suddenly  threw  up  defensive 


CH.  XXVII.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERLIIT.  417 

works  at  Plevna,  in  Bulgaria,  a  point  the  Eussians  had 
neglected  to  secure,  and  maintained  himself  there,  repulsing 
the  Eussians  many  times  with  great  slaughter.  For  a  while 
success  seemed  altogether  on  the  side  of  the  Turks,  and  many 
people  in  England  were  convinced  that  the  Kussian  enterprise 
was  already  an  entire  failure  ;  that  nothing  remained  for  the 
armies  of  the  Czar  but  retreat,  disaster,  and  disgrace.  Under 
the  directing  skill,  however,  of  General  Todleben,  the  great 
soldier  whose  splendid  defence  of  Sebastopol  had  made  the  one 
grand  military  reputation  of  the  Crimean  War,  the  fortmies  of 
the  campaign  again  turned.  Kars  was  taken  by  assault  oh 
November  18,  1877  ;  Plevna  surrendered  on  December  10. 
At  the  opening  of  1878  the  Turks  were  completely  prostrate. 
The  road  to  Constantinople  was  clear.  Before  the  English 
public  had  time  to  recover  their  breath  and  to  observe  what 
was  taking  place,  the  victorious  armies  of  Eussia  were  almost 
within  sight  of  the  minarets  of  Stamboul. 

Meanwhile  the  English  Government  were  taking  momen- 
tous action.  In  the  first  days  of  1878  Sir  Henry  Elliott,  who 
had  been  Ambassador  in  Constantinople,  was  transferred  to 
Vienna,  and  Mr.  Layard,  who  had  been  Minister  at  Madrid, 
was  sent  to  the  Turkish  capital  to  represent  England  there. 
Mr.  Layard  was  known  to  be  a  strong  believer  in  Turkey  ; 
more  Turkish  in  some  respects  than  the  Turks  themselves. 
But  he  was  a  man  of  superabundant  energy  ;  of  what  might 
be  described  as  boisterous  energy.  The  Ottoman  Government 
could  not  but  accept  his  appointment  as  a  new  and  stronger 
proof  that  the  English  Government  were  determined  to  stand 
their  friend ;  but  they  ought  to  have  accepted  it  too  as  evi- 
dence that  the  English  Government  were  determined  to  use 
some  pressure  to  make  them  amenable  to  reason.  Unfor- 
tunately it  would  appear  that  the  Sultan's  Government 
accepted  Mr.  Layard' s  appointment  in  the  one  sense  only  and 
not  in  the  other.  Parliament  was  called  together  at  least  a 
fortnight  before  the  time  usual  during  recent  years.  The 
Speech  from  the  Throne  announced  that  her  Majesty  could 
not  conceal  from  herself  tl  at  should  the  hostilities  between 
Eussia  and  Turkey  unfortunately  be  prolonged  '  some  unex- 
pected occurrence  may  render  it  incumbent  on  me  to  adopt 
measures  of  precaution.'  This  looked  ominous  to  those  who 
wished  for  peace,  and  it  raised  the  spirits  of  the  war  party. 
There  was  a  very  large  and  a  very  noisy  war  party  already 
iu   existence.     It   was   particularly   strong    in  London.      It 

18- 


4tS     a  short  history  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxvii. 

embraced  some  Liberals  as  well  as  nearly  all  Tories.  It  was 
popular  in  the  music-lialls  and  the  public-houses  of  London. 
The  men  of  action  got  a  nickname.  A  poet  of  the  music- 
halls  had  composed  a  ballad  which  was  sung  at  one  of  these 
caves  of  harmony  every  night  amid  the  tumultuous  applause 
of  excited  patriots.  The  refrain  of  this  war-song  contained 
the  spirit-stirring  words  : — 

We  don't  want  to  fight,  but,  by  Jin2:o,  if  wo  do, 

We've  got  the  ships,  we've  got  tlie  men,  we've  got  the  money  too. 

Some  one  whose  pulses  this  lyrical  outburst  of  national 
pride  failed  to  stir  called  the  party  of  its  enthusiasts  Jingoes. 
The  name  was  caught  up  at  once,  and  the  party  were  uni- 
versally knoAvn  as  the  Jingoes.  The  term,  applied  as  one  of 
ridicule  and  reproach,  was  adopted  by  chivalrous  Jingoes  as  a 
name  of  pride. 

The  Government  ordered  the  Mediterranean  fleet  to  pass 
the  Dardanelles  and  go  up  to  Constantinople.  The  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  announced  that  he  would  ask  for  a 
supplementary  estimate  of  six  millions  for  naval  and  military 
purposes.  Thereupon  Lord  Carnarvon,  the  Colonial  Secretary, 
at  once  resigned.  He  had  been  anxious  to  get  out  of  the 
Mmistry  before,  but  Lord  Beaconsfield  induced  him  to  remain. 
He  disapproved  now  so  strongly  of  the  despatch  of  the  fleet 
to  Constantinople  and  the  supplementary  vote,  that  he  would 
not  any  longer  defer  his  resignation.  Lord  Derby  was  also 
anxious  to  resign,  and  indeed  tendered  his  resignation,  but  he 
was  prevailed  upon  to  withdraw  it.  The  fleet  meanwhile  was 
ordered  back  from  the  Dardanelles  to  Besika  Bay.  It  had 
got  as  far  as  the  opening  of  the  Straits  when  it  was  recalled. 
The  Liberal  Opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons  kept  on 
protesting  against  the  various  war  measures  of  the  Govern- 
ment, but  with  little  effect.  While  all  this  agitation  in  and 
out  of  Parhament  was  going  on,  the  news  came  that  the 
Turks,  utterly  broken  down,  had  been  compelled  to  sign  an 
armistice,  and  an  agreement  containing  a  basis  of  peace,  at 
Adrianople.  Then,  following  quickly  on  the  heels  of  this 
announcement,  came  a  report  that  the  Kussians,  notwith- 
standing the  armistice,  were  pushing  on  towards  Constanti- 
nople with  the  intention  of  occupying  the  Turkish  capital. 
A  cry  of  alarm  and  indignation  broke  out  in  London.  If 
the  clamour  of  the  streets  at  that  moment  had  been  the  voice 
of  England^  nothing   could  have  prevented  a  declaration  of 


CH.  XXVII.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN,  419 

war  against  Eussia.  Happily,  however,  it  was  proved  that 
the  rumour  of  Eussian  advance  was  unfouiiled.  The  leet 
was  now  sent  in  good  earnest  through  the  DardaneUes, 
and  anchored  a  few  miles  below  Constantinople.  Eussia  at 
first  protested  that  if  the  English  fleet  passed  the  Straits 
Eussian  troops  ought  to  occupy  the  city.  Lord  Derby  was 
firm,  and  terms  of  arrangement  were  found — English  troops 
were  not  to  be  disembarked  and  the  Eussians  were  not  to 
advance.     Eussia  was  still  open  to  negotiation. 

Probably  Eussia  had  no  idea  of  taldng  on  herself  the 
tremendous  responsibility  of  an  occupation  of  Constantinople. 
She  had  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Turkey,  the  famous 
Treaty  of  San  Stefano,  which  secured  for  the  populations 
of  the  Christian  provinces  almost  complete  independence 
of  Turkey,  and  was  to  create  a  great  new  Bulgarian  State 
with  a  seaport  on  the  Egean  Sea.  The  English  Govern- 
ment refused  to  recognise  this  treaty.  Eussia  offered  to 
submit  the  treaty  to  the  perusal,  if  we  may  use  the  ex- 
pression, of  a  Congress ;  but  argued  that  the  stipulations 
which  merely  concerned  Turkey  and  herself  were  for  Turkey 
and  herself  to  settle  between  them.  This  was  obviously  an 
untenable  position.  It  is  out  of  the  question  to  suppose  that, 
as  long  as  European  policy  is  conducted  on  its  present  prin- 
ciples, the  Great  Powers  of  the  West  could  consent  to  allow 
Eussia  to  force  on  Turkey  any  terms  she  might  think  proper. 
Turkey  meanwhile  kept  feebly  moaning  that  she  had  been 
coerced  into  signing  the  treaty.  The  Government  deter- 
mined to  call  in  the  Eeserves,  to  summon  a  contingent  of 
Indian  troops  to  Europe,  to  occupy  Cyprus,  and  to  make  an 
armed  landing  on  the  coast  of  Syria.  All  these  resolves  were 
not,  however,  made  known  at  the  time.  Everyone  felt  sure 
that  something  important  w^as  going  on,  and  public  expec- 
tancy was  strained  to  the  full.  On  March  28,  1878,  Lord 
Derby  announced  his  resignation.  Measures,  he  said,  had 
been  resolved  upon  of  w^hich  he  could  not  approve.  He  did 
not  give  any  explanation  of  the  measures  to  which  he  ob- 
jected. Lord  Beaconsfield  spoke  a  few  words  of  good  feeling 
and  good  taste  after  Lord  Derby's  announcement.  He  had 
hoped,  he  said,  that  Lord  Derby  would  soon  come  to  occupy 
the  place  of  Prime  Minister  which  he  now  held ;  he  dwelt 
upon  their  long  friendship.  Not  much  was  said  on  either 
side  of  what  the  Government  were  doing.     The  last  hope  of 


420     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR^  OWN"  TIMES,     ch.  xxvil. 

the  Peace  Party  seemed  to  have  vanished  when  Lord  Derby 
left  his  office. 

Lord  Sahsbiiry  was  made  Foreign  Minister.  He  wag 
succeeded  in  the  India  Office  by  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy,  now 
created  Lord  Cranbrook.  Colonel  Stanley,  brother  of  Lord 
Derby,  took  the  office  of  Minister  of  War  in  Lord  Cranbrook's 
place.  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  had  already  become  Secre- 
tary for  the  Colonies  on  the  resignation  of  Lord  Carnarvon. 
The  post  of  Irish  Secretary  had  been  given  to  Mr.  James 
Lowther.  Lord  Salisbury  issued  a  circular  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  it  would  be  impossible  for  England  to  enter  a 
Congress  which  wa.s  not  free  to  consider  the  whole  of  the 
provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano.  The  very  day  after 
Parliament  had  adjourned  for  the  Easter  recess,  the  Indian 
Government  received  orders  to  send  certain  of  their  troops  to 
Malta.  This  was  a  complete  surprise  to  the  country.  It  was 
made  the  occasion  for  a  very  serious  controversy  on  a  grave 
constitutional  question  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  The 
Ojiposition  contended  that  the  constitutional  principle  which 
left  it  for  Parliament  to  fix  the  number  of  soldiers  the  Crown 
might  maintain  in  England  was  reduced  to  nothingness  if 
the  Prime  Minister  could  at  any  moment,  without  even  con- 
sulting Parliament,  draw  what  reinforcements  he  thought  fit 
from  the  almost  limitless  resources  of  India.  The  majority 
then  supporting  Lord  Beaconsfield  were  not,  however,  much 
disposed  to  care  about  argument.  They  were  willing  to  ap- 
prove of  any  step  Lord  Beaconsfield  might  think  fit  to  take. 

Prince  Bismarck  had  often  during  these  events  shown  an 
inclination  to  exhibit  himself  in  the  new  attitude  of  a  peaceful 
mediator.  He  now  interposed  again  and  issued  invitations 
for  a  Congress  to  be  held  in  Berlin  to  discuss  the  whole  con- 
tents of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano.  After  some  delay,  dis- 
cussion, and  altercation,  Russia  agreed  to  accept  the  invita- 
tion on  the  conditions  proposed,  and  it  was  finally  resolved 
that  a  Congress  should  assemble  in  Berlin  on  the  approacli- 
ing  June  13.  Much  to  the  surprise  of  the  public.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  announced  that  he  himself  would  attend,  ac- 
companied by  Lord  Salisbury,  and  conduct  the  negotiations 
in  Berlin.  The  event  was  we  believe  without  precedent. 
Never  before  liad  an  English  Prime  Minister  left  the  country 
whilst  Parliament  was  sitting  to  act  as  the  representative  of 
England  in  a  foreign  capital.  The  part  he  had  undertaken  to 
play  suited  Lord  Beaconsfield's  love  for  the  picturesque  and 


CH.  XXVII.  THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  421 

fche  theatrical.  His  journey  to  Berlin  was  a  sort  of  trium- 
phal progress.  At  every  great  city,  almost  at  every  railway 
station,  as  he  passed,  crowds  turned  out,  drawn  partly  by 
curiosity,  partly  by  admiration,  to  see  the  English  statesman 
whose  strange  and  varied  career  had  so  long  excited  the 
wondering  attention  of  Europe.  Prince  Bismarck  presided 
at  the  Congress,  and,  it  is  said,  departed  from  the  usual 
custom  of  diplomatic  assemblages  by  opening  the  proceedings 
in  English.  The  use  of  our  language  was  understood  to  be  a 
kindly  and  somewhat  patronising  deference  to  the  English 
Prime  Minister,  whose  knowledge  of  spoken  French  was  sup- 
posed to  have  fallen  rather  into  decay  of  late  years.  The 
Congress  discussed  the  whole,  or  nearly  the  whole,  of  the 
questions  opened  up  by  the  recent  war.  Greece  claimed  to 
be  heard  there,  and  after  some  delay  and  some  difficulty  was 
allowed  to  plead  in  her  own  cause. 

The  Treaty  of  Berlin  recognised  the  complete  indepen- 
dence of  Eoumania,  of  Servia,  and  of  Montenegro,  subject 
only  to  certain  stipulations  with  regard  to  religious  equality 
in  each  of  these  States.  To  Montenegro  it  gave  a  seaport 
and  a  slip  of  territory  attaching  to  it.  Thus  one  great  object 
of  the  mountaineers  was  accomplished.  They  were  able  to 
reach  the  sea.  The  treaty  created,  north  of  the  Balkans,  a 
State  of  Bulgaria :  a  much  smaller  Bulgaria  than  that 
sketched  in  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano.  Bulgaria  was  to  be 
a  self-governing  State  tributary  to  the  Sultan  and  owning  his 
suzerainty,  but  in  other  respects  practically  independent.  It 
was  to  be  governed  by  a  Prince  whom  the  population  were  to 
elect  with  the  assent  of  the  Great  Powers  and  the  confirmation 
of  the  Sultan.  It  was  stipulated  that  no  member  of  any 
reigning  dynasty  of  the  Great  European  Powers  should  be 
eligible  as  a  candidate.  South  of  the  Balkans,  the  treaty 
created  another  and  a  different  kind  of  State,  under  the  name 
of  Eastern  Eoumelia.  That  State  was  to  remain  under  the 
direct  political  and  military  authority  of  the  Sultan,  but  it 
W'as  to  have,  as  to  its  interior  condition,  a  sort  of  '  administra- 
tive autonomy,'  as  the  favourite  diplomatic  phrase  then 
was.  East  Pioumelia  was  to  be  ruled  by  a  Christian  Governor, 
and  there  was  a  stipulation  that  the  Sultan  should  not 
employ  any  irregular  troops,  such  as  the  Circassians  and  the 
Bashi-Bazouks,  in  the  garrisons  of  the  frontier.  The  Euro- 
pean Powers  were  to  arrange  in  concert  with  the  Porte  (or 
the  organisation  of  this  new  State.     As  regarded  Greece,  it 


422    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OW.V  TIMES.     CH.  xxvil. 

was  arranged  that  the  Sultan  and  the  Kmg  of  the  Hellenes 
were  to  come  to  some  miderstandmg  for  a  modification  of  the 
Greek  frontier,  and  that  if  they  could  not  arrange  this  betw^een 
themselves,  the  Great  Powers  were  to  have  the  right  of  offer- 
ing, that  is  to  say  in  plain  words  of  insisting  on,  their  media- 
tion. Bosnia  and  the  Herzegovina  were  to  be  occupied  and 
administered  by  Austria.  Eoumania  undertook,  or  in  other 
words  was  compelled  to  undertake,  to  return  to  Eussia  that 
portion  of  Bessarabian  territory  which  had  been  detached  from 
Eussia  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  Eoumania  was  to  receive  in 
compensation  some  islands  forming  the  Delta  of  the  Danube, 
and  a  portion  of  the  Dobrudscha.  As  regarded  Asia,  the 
Porte  was  to  cede  to  Eussia,  Ardahan,  Kars,  and  Batoum, 
with  its  gr3at  port  on  the  Black  Sea. 

The  Treaty  of  Berlin  gave  rise  to  keen  and  adverse  criti- 
cism. Very  bitter  indeed  was  the  controversy  provoked  by 
the  surrender  to  Eussia  of  the  Bessarabian  territory  taken 
from  her  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean  War.  Eussia  had  re- 
gained everything  which  she  had  been  compelled  to  sacrifice 
at  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War.  The  Black  Sea  was  open 
to  her  war  vessels,  and  its  shores  to  her  arsenals.  The  last 
slight  trace  of  Crimean  humiliation  was  effaced  in  the  restora- 
tion of  the  territory  of  Bessarabia.  Profound  disappointment 
was  caused  among  many  European  populations,  as  well  as 
among  the  Greeks  themselves,  by  the  arrangements  for  the 
rectification  of  the  Greek  frontier.  Thus,  speaking  roughly, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  effect  of  the  Congress  of  Berlin  on  the 
mind  of  Europe  was  to  make  the  Christian  populations  of  the 
south-east  believe  that  their  friend  was  Eussia  and  their 
enemies  were  England  and  Turkey  ;  to  make  the  Greeks 
believe  that  France  was  their  especial  friend,  and  that  Eng- 
land was  their  enemy;  and  to  create  an  uncomfortable  im- 
pression everywhere  that  the  whole  Congress  was  a  pre- 
arranged business,  a  transaction  with  a  foregone  conclusion, 
a  dramatic  performance  carefully  rehearsed  before  in  all  its 
details  and  merely  enacted  as  a  pageant  on  the  Berlin 
stage. 

The  latter  impression  was  converted  into  a  conviction  by 
certain  subsequent  revelations.  It  came  out  that  Lord 
Beaconsfield  and  Lord  Salisbury  had  been  entering  into 
secret  engagements  both  with  Eussia  and  with  Turkey.  The 
secret  engagement  with  Eussia  was  prematurely  divulged  by 
the  heedlessness  or  the  treachery  of  a  person  who  had  been 


CH.  xxvil.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  423 

called  in  at  a  small  temporary  rate  of  j)ay  to  assist  in  copying 
despatches  in  the  Foreign  Office.  It  bomid  England  to  put 
up  with  the  handing  back  of  Bessarabia  and  the  cession  of  the 
port  of  Batoum.  It  conceded  all  the  points  in  advance  which 
the  English  people  believed  that  their  plenipotentiaries  had 
been  making  brave  struggle  for  at  Berlin.  Lord  Beaconsfield 
had  not  then  frightened  Kussia  into  accepting  the  Congress 
on  his  terms.  The  call  of  the  Indian  troops  to  Malta  had  not 
done  the  business  ;  nor  the  reserves,  nor  the  vote  of  tlie  six 
millions.  Russia  had  gone  into  the  Congress  because  Lord 
Salisbury  had  made  a  secret  engagement  with  her  that  she 
should  have  what  she  specially  wanted.  The  Congress  was 
only  a  piece  of  pompous  and  empty  ceremonial.  By  another 
secret  engagement  entered  into  with  Turkey,  the  English 
Government  undertook  to  guarantee  to  Turkey  her  Asiatic 
possessions  against  all  invasion  on  condition  that  Turkey 
handed  over  to  England  the  island  of  Cyprus  for  her  occupa- 
tion. The  difterence,  therefore,  between  the  policy  of  the 
Conservative  Government  and  the  policy  of  the  Liberals  was 
now  thro^vn  into  the  strongest  possible  relief.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, and  those  who  thought  with  him,  had  always  made  it 
a  principle  of  their  policy  that  England  had  no  special  and 
separate  interest  in  maintaining  the  independence  of  Turkey. 
Lord  Beaconsfield  now  declared  it  to  be  the  cardinal  principle 
of  his  policy  that  England  specially,  England  above  all,  was 
concerned  to  maintain  the  mtegrity  and  the  independence  of 
the  Turldsh  Empire ;  that  in  fact  the  security  of  Turkey  was 
as  much  part  of  the  duty  of  English  statesmanship  as  the 
security  of  the  Channel  Islands  or  of  Malta. 

For  the  moment  the  policy  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  seemed 
to  be  entirely  in  the  ascendant.  His  return  home  was  cele- 
brated with  great  pomp  and  circumstance.  He  made  a  con- 
quering hero's  progress  through  the  streets  of  London.  Arrived 
at  the  Foreign  Office,  he  addressed  from  the  windows  an 
excited  and  tumultuous  crowd,  and  he  proclaimed,  in  words 
which  became  memorable,  that  he  had  brought  back  '  Peace 
with  Honour.'  At  this  moment  he  was  probably  the  most 
conspicuous  public  man  in  the  v/orld,  miless  we  make  one 
single  exception  in  favour  of  Prince  Bismarck.  He  had 
attained  to  a  position  of  almost  unrivalled  popularity  in  Eng- 
land. He  ought  to  have  followed  classic  advice  and  sacrificed 
at  that  moment  his  dearest  possession  to  the  gods.  No  man 
without  sacrifice  could  buy  the  lease  of  such  a  position  and 


424     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWJV  TIMES.     CH.  xxvil. 

the  endurance  of  such  a  success.  Meanwhile,  so  far  as  could 
be  judged  by  external  symptoms,  and  in  the  metropolis,  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  his  followers  were  down  to  their  lowest  depth, 
their  very  zero  of  unpopularity.  The  majority  of  the  London 
newspapers  were  entirely  on  the  side  of  Lord  Beaconsfield. 
In  the  provinces,  on  the  whole,  Liberalism  still  remained 
popular.  Mr.  Gladstone  would  still  have  been  sure  of  the 
cheers  of  a  great  provincial  meeting.  But  there  came  a  day 
in  London  when,  passing  with  his  wife  through  one  of  the 
streets,  he  was  compelled  to  seek  the  shelter  of  a  friendly 
hall-door  in  order  to  escape  from  the  threatening  demon- 
strations of  a  little  mob  of  patriots  boisterously  returning 
from  a  Jingo  carnival. 

During  the  excitement  caused  by  the  preparations  for  the 
Congress  of  Berlin  a  long  career  came  quietly  to  a  close.  On 
May  28,  1878,  Lord  Russell  died  at  his  residence,  Pembroke 
Lodge,  Richmond.  He  may  be  said  to  have  faded  out  of  life, 
to  have  ceased  to  live,  rather  than  to  have  died,  so  quiet, 
gradual,  almost  imperceptible  was  the  passing  away.  He  had 
not  for  some  time  taken  any  active  part  in  public  affairs.  Now 
and  then  some  public  event  aroused  his  attention,  and  he 
addressed  a  letter  to  one  of  the  newspapers.  To  the  last 
moments  of  his  life  Lord  Russell  refused  to  surrender  wholly 
his  concern  in  the  affairs  of  men.  The  world  listened  respect- 
fully to  these  few  occasional  words  from  one  who  had  borne  a 
leader's  part  in  some  of  the  greatest  political  struggles  of  the 
century,  and  who  still  from  the  very  edge  of  the  grave  was 
anxious  to  offer  his  whisper  of  counsel  or  of  wrrning.  His  had 
been  on  the  whole  a  great  career.  He  had  not  only  lived 
through  great  changes,  he  had  helped  to  accomplish  some  of 
the  greatest  changes  his  time  had  known.  His  life  was  sin- 
gularly unselfish.  He  was  often  eager  and  pushing  where  he 
believed  that  he  saw  his  way  to  do  something  needful,  and 
men  confounded  the  zeal  of  a  cause  with  the  eagerness  of  per- 
sonal ambition.  He  never  cared  for  money,  and  his  original 
rank  raised  him  above  any  possible  consideration  for  enhanced 
social  distinction.  He  had  made  many  mistakes  ;  but  those 
who  knew  him  best  prized  most  highly  both  his  political 
capacity  and  his  personal  character.  His  later  years  w^ro 
made  happy  and  smooth  by  all  that  the  love  of  a  household 
could  do.  He  had  lost  a  son,  a  young  man  of  much  political 
promise,  Lord  Amberley,  who  died  in  1870  ;  but  on  the  whole 
Le  had  suffered  less  in  his  later  time  than  is  commonly  the  lot 


cr.  XXVII.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  425 

ol  ihose  wlio  live  to  extreme  old  age.  The  time  of  his  death 
was  in  a  certain  sense  appropriate.  His  pubhc  career  had 
just  begun  at  the  time  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  ;  it  closed 
with  the  preparations  for  the  Congress  of  Berlin. 

Why  did  not  Lord  Beaconsfield  sacrifice  to  the  gods  his 
dearest  possession,  his  political  majority,  immediately  after 
the  triumphal  return  from  Berlin  ?  The  opinion  of  nearly  all 
who  pretended  to  form  a  judgment  was,  that  at  that  time  the 
great  majority  of  the  constituencies  were  with  him.  It  is  said 
that  he  was  strongly  advised  by  some  of  his  northern  sup- 
porters not  to  put  the  country  then  to  the  cost  of  a  general 
election.  Whatever  the  reason  may  have  been,  the  expected 
dissolution  did  not  take  place,  and  from  that  time  Lord 
Beaconsfield  never  had  any  chance  of  a  successful  appeal  to 
the  country.  From  that  time  the  popularity  of  his  Govern- 
ment began  to  go  down  and  down.  Trade  was  depressed. 
The  badness  of  trade  and  the  general  depression  were  no  fault 
of  the  Administration,  but  the  Government  aggravated  every 
evil  of  this  kind  by  the  strain  on  which  they  kept  the  expec- 
tation of  the  country.  Their  domestic  policy  had  not  been 
successful.  They  had  attempted  many  large  measures  and 
failed  to  carry  them  through.  They  had  not  satisfied  the 
country  party,  to  whom  they  owed  so  much.  The  malt  tax 
remained  a  grievance,  as  it  had  been  for  generations.  The 
Government  had  got  into  trouble  with  the  Home  Kule  party. 
Mr.  Parnell,  a  yomig  man  but  lately  come  into  Parliament, 
soon  proved  himself  the  most  remarkable  politician  who  had 
arisen  on  the  field  of  Irish  politics  since  the  day  when  John 
Mitchel  was  conveyed  away  from  Dublin  to  Bermuda.  The 
tactics  adopted  by  Mr.  Parnell  annoyed  and  discredited  the 
Government.  The  country  blamed  Wiq  Ministry,  it  scarcely 
knew  why,  for  the  manner  in  which  the  policy  called  obstruc- 
tive had  been  allowed  to  come  into  force.  It  was  evident 
that  a  new  chapter  in  Irish  agitation  was  opening,  and  those 
who  disliked  the  prospect  felt  inclmed  to  lay  the  blame  on 
the  Government,  as  if,  because  they  happened  to  be  in  office, 
they  must  be  responsible  for  everything  that  took  place  during 
their  official  reign.  Most  of  all,  the  Ministry  suffered  from 
the  efi"ect  produced  upon  the  country  by  the  smaller  wars  into 
which  they  plunged. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  invasion  of  Afghanistan.  The 
Government  determined  to  send  a  mission  to  Shere  Ali,  one 
of  the  sons  of  Dost  Mohammed,  and  then  the  ruler  of  Cabul, 


426    A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxvii, 

in  order  to  guard  against  Eussian  intrigue  by  establishing  a 
distinct  and  paramount  influence  in  Afghanistan.  Shere 
Ali  strongly  objected  to  receive  either  a  mission  or  a  perma- 
nent Eesident.  The  mission  was  sent  forward.  It  was  so 
numerous  as  to  look  rather  like  an  army  than  an  embassy. 
It  started  from  Peshawur  on  September  21,  1878,  but  wa3 
stopped  on  the  frontier  by  an  officer  of  Shere  Ali,  who  ob- 
jected to  its  passing  through  until  he  had  received  authority 
from  his  master.  This  delay  was  magnified,  by  the  news 
first  received  here,  into  an  insolent  rebuff.  The  Envoy  was 
ordered  to  go  on,  and  before  long  the  mission  was  turned  into 
an  invasion.  The  Afghans  made  but  a  poor  resistance,  and 
the  English  troops  soon  occupied  Cabul.  Shere  Ali  fled  from 
his  capital.  One  portion  of  our  forces  occupied  Candahar. 
Shere  Ali  died,  and  Yakoob  Khan,  his  son,  became  his  suc- 
cessor. Yakoob  Khan  presented  himself  at  the  British  camp 
which  had  now  been  established  at  Gandamak,  a  place  between 
Jellalabad  and  Cabul.  Here  the  Treaty  of  Gandamak  was 
signed  on  May  5,  1879.  The  Indian  Government  under- 
took by  this  treaty  to  pay  the  Ameer  60,000Z.  a  year,  and  the 
Ameer  ceded,  or  appeared  to  cede,  what  Lord  Beaconsfield 
called  the  '  scientific  frontier,'  and  agreed  to  admit  a  British 
representative  to  reside  in  Cabul.  On  those  conditions  he 
was  to  be  supported  against  any  foreign  enemy  with  money 
and  arms,  and,  if  necessary,  with  men.  Hardly  had  the 
country  ceased  clapping  its  hands  and  exulting  over  the  quiet 
establishment  of  an  English  Eesident  at  Cabul  when  a  tele- 
gram arrived  announcing  that  the  events  of  November  1841 
had  repeated  themselves  in  that  city.  The  tragedy  of  Sir 
Alexander  Burnes  was  enacted  over  again.  A  popular  rising 
took  place  in  Cabul  exactly  as  had  happened  in  1841.  Sir 
Louis  Cavagnari,  the  English  Envoy,  and  all  or  nearly  all 
the  members  of  his  staff,  were  murdered.  There  was  nothing 
to  be  done  for  it  but  invade  Cabul  over  again,  and  take  ven- 
geance for  the  massacre  of  the  English  officers.  The  British 
troops  hurried  up,  fought  their  way  with  their  usual  success, 
and  on  the  Christmas  Eve  of  1879  Cabul  was  again  entered. 
Yakoob  Khan,  accused  of  complicity  in  the  massacre,  was  sent 
as  a  prisoner  to  India.  Cabul  was  occupied,  but  not  possessed. 
The  English  Government  held  in  their  power  just  as  much 
of  Afghanistan  as  they  could  cover  with  their  encampments. 
They  held  it  for  just  so  long  as  they  kept  the  encampments 
standing.  The  Treaty  of  Gandamak  was  of  course  nothing 
but  waste  paper. 


CH.  XXVII.  THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLm.  427 

The  wai  in  South  Africa  was,  if  possible,  less  justifiable. 
It  was  also,  if  possible,  more  disastrous.  The  region  which 
we  call  South  Africa  consisted  of  several  States,  native  and 
European,  under  various  forms  of  authority.  Cape  Colony 
and  Natal  were  for  a  long  time  the  only  English  dommions. 
The  Orange  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal  Kepublic  were 
Dutch  settlements.  In  1848,  the  British  Government  had 
established  its  authority  over  the  Orange  Eiver  territory,  but 
it  afterwards  transferred  its  powers  to  a  provisional  Government 
of  Dutch  origin.  The  Transvaal  was  a  Dutch  Eepublic  with 
which  we  had  until  quite  lately  no  direct  connection.  In 
1852,  the  English  Government  resolved  that  its  operations 
and  its  responsibilities  in  South  Africa  should  be  limited  to 
Cape  Colony  and  Natal,  and  distinctly  recognised  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal  Republic. 
Besides  these  States  of  what  we  may  call  European  origin, 
there  were  a  great  many  native  communities,  some  which  had 
enough  of  organisation  to  be  almost  regarded  as  States.  The 
Kaffirs  had  often  given  us  trouble  before.  The  most  powerful 
tribe  in  South  Africa  was  that  of  the  Zulus.  Natal  was  divided 
from  Zulu  territory  only  by  the  River  Tugela.  The  ruler  of 
the  Zulu  tribe,  Cetewayo,  was  much  inclined  to  a  cordial  alliance 
with  the  English,  and  although  he  did  not  owe  his  power  in 
any  direct  sense  to  us,  yet  he  went  through  a  form,  in  which 
our  representatives  bore  their  part,  of  accepting  his  cro"\^Ti  at 
the  hands  of  the  English  Sovereign.  He  was  often  involved 
in  disputes  with  the  Boers,  or  Dutch-descended  occupants  of 
the  Transvaal  Republic.  Other  native  tribes  were  still  more 
directly  and  often  engaged  in  quarrels  with  the  Boers.  The 
Transvaal  Republic  made  war  upon  one  of  the  greatest 
of  these  African  chiefs,  Secocoeni,  and  had  the  worst  of  it  in 
the  struggle.  The  Republic  was  badly  managed  m  every  way. 
Its  military  operations  were  a  total  failure  ;  its  exchequer  was 
ruined ;  there  seemed  hardly  any  chance  of  mamtaining  order 
within  its  frontier,  and  the  prospect  appeared  at  the  time  to 
be  that  its  South  African  enemies  would  overrun  the  whole 
of  the  Republic,  would  thus  come  up  to  the  borders  of  the 
English  States,  and  possibly  might  soon  mvolve  the  English 
settlers  themselves  in  war.  Under  these  conditions  a  certain 
number  of  disappointed  or  alarmed  inhabitants  of  the  Trans- 
vaal made  some  kind  of  indirect  proposition  to  England  that 
the  Republic  should  be  annexed  to  English  territory.  Sir 
TheophiluB  Shepstone  was  sent  out  by  England  to  ascertain 


428     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OIVN  TIMES,     cii.  xxvil. 

whether  this  offer  was  genuine  and  national.  He  seems  to 
have  been  entirely  mistaken  in  his  appreciation  of  the  con- 
dition of  things,  and  he  boldly  declared  the  Eepublic  a  portion 
of  the  dominions  of  Great  Britain.  Meanwhile  there  had 
been  a  controversy  going  on  for  a  long  time  between  Cetewayo 
and  the  Transvaal  Eepublic  about  a  certain  disputed  strip  of 
land.  The  dispute  was  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  Eng- 
land, with  whom  Cetewayo  was  then  on  the  most  friendly 
terms.  Four  English  arbitrators  decided  that  the  disputed 
strip  of  territory  properly  belonged  to  the  Zulu  nation. 

Meanwhile,  Sir  Bartle  Frere  was  sent  out  as  Lord  High 
Commissioner.  From  the  moment  of  his  appearance  on  the 
scene  the  whole  state  of  affairs  seems  to  have  undergone  a 
complete  change.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  kept  back  the  award  of 
the  arbitrators  for  several  months,  unwilling  to  hand  over 
any  new  territory  unconditionally  to  Cetewayo,  whom  he 
regarded  as  a  dangerous  enemy  and  an  unscrupulous  despot. 
During  this  time  a  hostile  feeling  was  growing  up  in  the  mind 
of  Cetewayo.  He  appears  to  have  really  become  mastered  by 
the  conviction  that  the  English  were  determined  to  find  a 
pretext  for  making  war  on  him,  for  annexing  his  territory, 
and  for  sending  him  to  prison,  as  had  been  done  to  another 
South  African  chief,  Langalibalele,  in  1874.  Sir  Bartle  Frere 
was  a  man  who  had  many  times  rendered  great  service  to  Eng- 
land. He  had  been  Chief  Commissioner  in  Scinde  from  1852 
to  1859,  and  had  shown  great  ability  and  energy  during  the 
Indian  Mutiny.  Since  that  he  had  been  one  of  the  Council 
of  the  Viceroy  of  India ;  he  had  been  for  some  years  Governor 
of  Bombay,  and  he  had  been  appointed  to  the  Council  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  here  at  home.  He  had  been  sent  upon  an 
important  mission  to  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  in  1872,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  endeavour  to  obtain  the  suppression  of 
the  slave  trade,  and  he  succeeded.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  seems 
to  have  been  really  filled  with  that  imperial  instinct  about 
which  other  men  only  talked.  His  was  a  strong  nature  with 
an  imperious  will  and  an  inexhaustible  energy.  He  was  un- 
doubtedly conscientious  and  high-principled  according  to  his 
lights.  He  appears  to  have  been  influenced  by  two  strong 
ambitions :  to  spread  the  Gospel  and  to  extend  the  territory 
of  England.  In  Africa  his  mind  appears  to  have  become  at 
once  possessed  with  the  conviction  that  alike  for  the  safety  of 
the  whites  and  the  improvement  of  the  coloured  races  it  would 
be  necessary  to  extend  the  government  of  England  over  the 


CH.  XXVII.  THE   CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN.  429 

whole  southern  portion  of  that  continent,  and  to  efface  the 
boundaries  of  native  tribes  by  blending  them  all  into  one 
imperial  confederation. 

Cetewayo's  position  made  him  a  rival  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere's 
policy,  and  Sir  Bartle  Frere  appears  to  have  made  up  his 
mind  that  these  two  stars  were  not  to  keep  their  motion  in 
one  sphere,  and  that  South  Africa  was  not  to  brook  the  double 
rule  of  the  English  Commissioner  and  the  Zulu  king.  Sir 
Bartle  Frere  kept  the  award  of  the  four  English  arbitrators  in 
his  hands  for  some  months  without  taking  any  action  upon 
it,  and  when  he  did  at  length  announce  it  to  Cetewayo,  he 
accompanied  it  with  an  ultimatum  declaring  that  the  Zulu 
army  must  at  once  be  disbanded  and  must  return  to  their 
homes.  This  was  in  point  of  fact  a  declaration  of  war.  The 
English  troops  immediately  invaded  Zulu  country,  and  almost 
the  first  news  that  reached  England  of  the  progress  of  the 
war  was  the  story  of  the  complete  and  terrible  defeat  of  an 
English  force  on  January  22,  1879.  Not  vv^ithin  the  memory 
of  any  living  man  had  so  sudden  and  sweeping  a  disaster  fallen 
upon  English  arms.  Englishmen  were  wholly  unused  to  the 
very  idea  of  English  troops  being  defeated  in  the  field.  The 
story  that  an  English  force  had  been  surprised  and  out- 
generaled, out-fought,  completely  defeated  by  half-naked 
savages,  came  on  the  country  with  a  shock  never  felt  since  at 
least  the  time  of  the  disasters  of  Cabul  and  the  Jugdulluk 
Pass.  Of  course  the  disaster  was  retrieved.  Lord  Chelms- 
ford, the  Commander-in-Chief  (son  of  the  Lord  Chelmsford 
just  dead,  who  had  been  twice  Lord  Chancellor),  only  wanted 
time,  in  homely  language,  to  pull  himself  together  in  order  to 
recover  his  position.  The  war  soon  came  to  the  end  which 
everyone  must  have  expected,  first  the  defeat  of  the  Zulu  king 
and  then  his  capture.  Cetewayo's  territory  was  divided 
amongst  the  leading  native  chiefs.  A  portion  of  it  was  given 
to  an  Englishman,  John  Dunn,  who  had  settled  in  the  coun- 
try very  young,  and  who  had  become  a  sort  of  potentate 
among  the  Zulus. 

One  melancholy  incident  made  the  war  memorable  not 
only  to  England  but  to  Europe.  The  young  French  Prince 
Louis  Napoleon,  who  had  studied  in  English  military  schools, 
had  attached  himself  as  a  volunteer  to  Lord  Chelmsford's 
staff.  During  one  of  the  episodes  of  the  war  he  and  some  of 
his  companions  were  surprised  by  a  body  of  Zulus.  Others 
escaped,  but  Prince  Tjouis  Napoleon  was  killed. 


430     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  OUR  OWN  TIMES.     CH.  xxvil. 

The  war,  although  it  had  ended  in  a  practical  success,  wag 
none  the  less  regarded  by  the  English  public  as  a  blunder  and 
a  disaster.  Even  the  Afghan  enterprise,  objectionable  though 
it  was  in  almost  every  way,  did  not  affect  the  popularity  of 
the  Government  so  much  as  the  Zulu  war.  The  plain  com- 
mon sense  of  England  held  that  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  however 
high  and  conscientious  his  motives  may  have  been,  was  in  the 
wrong  from  first  to  last,  and  that  the  cause  of  Cetewayo  was 
on  the  whole  a  cause  of  fairness  and  of  justice.  On  the 
Government  fell  the  burden  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere's  responsi- 
bilities, without  Sir  Bartle  Frere's  consoling  and  self-sufficing 
belief  in  the  justice  of  his  cause  and  the  genuineness  of  his 
enterprise. 

The  distress  in  the  country  was  growing  deeper  and  deeper 
day  by  da;y.  Some  of  the  most  important  trades  were  suffering 
heavily.  The  winter  of  1878  had  been  long  and  bitter,  and 
there  had  been  practically  no  summer.  The  manufacturing 
and  mining  districts  almost  everywhere  over  the  country  were 
borne  down  by  the  failure  of  business.  The  working  classes 
were  in  genuine  distress.  In  Ireland  there  was  a  forecast  of 
something  almost  approaching  to  famine.  When  distress 
affects  the  trade  and  the  population  of  a  country,  the  first 
impulse  is  always  to  find  fault  with  the  reigning  Government. 
The  authority  of  the  Government  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  greatly  shaken.  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  had  not 
the  strength  necessary  to  make  a  successful  leader.  The 
result  was  that  the  House  was  becoming  demoralised.  The 
Government  brought  in  a  scheme  for  university  education 
in  Ireland,  which  was  nothing  better  than  a  mutilation  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  rejected  bill.  It  was  carried  through  both 
Houses  in  a  few  weeks,  because  the  Government  were  anxious 
to  do  something  which  might  have  the  appearance  of  con- 
ciliating the  Irish  people  without  going  far  enough  in  that 
direction  to  estrange  their  Conservative  supporters.  The 
measure  thus  devised  had  exactly  the  opposite  effect  from 
that  which  was  intended.  It  estranged  a  good  many  Conser- 
vative supporters  ;  it  roused  a  new  feeling  of  hostility  amongst 
the  Nonconformists,  and  it  did  not  concede  enough  to  the 
demands  of  the  Irish  Catholics  to  be  of  any  use  in  the  way  of 
conciliation.  It  was  plain  that  the  mandate,  to  use  a  French 
phrase,  of  the  Parliament  was  nearly  out.  The  session  of 
1879  was  its  sixth  session  ;  it  would  only  be  possible  to  liave 
one  session  more.     Louder  and  louder  grew  the  cry  from  the 


CH.  XXVII.  THE  CONGRESS  OF  BERLIN,  431 

Liberal  side  for  the  Government  at  once  to  go  to  the  country. 
Thus  the  winter  passed  on.  Two  or  three  elections  which 
occurred  meantime  resulted  in  favour  of  the  Conservatives. 
There  was  a  little  renewal  of  confidence  among  the  friends  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  and  a  sudden  sinking  of  the  spirits  among 
most  of  the  Liberals.  Parliament  met  in  February,  and  the 
Government  gave  it  to  be  understood  that  they  intended  to 
have  what  one  of  them  called  '  a  fair  working  session.'  Sud- 
denly, however,  they  made  up  their  minds  that  it  would  be 
convenient  to  accept  Mr.  Gladstone's  challenge,  and  to  dis- 
solve in  the  Easter  holidays.  The  dissolution  took  place  on 
March  24,  1880,  and  the  elections  began. 

With  the  very  first  day  of  the  elections  it  was  evident  that 
the  Conservative  majority  was  already  gone.  Each  succeedmg 
day  showed  more  and  more  the  change  that  had  taken  place 
in  public  feeling.  Defeat  was  turned  into  disaster.  Disaster 
became  utter  rout  and  confusion.  When  the  elections  were 
over  it  was  found  that  the  Conservative  party  were  nowhere. 
A  majority  of  some  hundred  and  twenty  sent  the  Liberals 
back  into  power.  No  Liberal  statesmen  in  our  time  ever 
before  saw  themselves  sustained  by  such  an  army  of  followers. 
There  was  a  moment  or  two  of  hesitation — of  delay.  The 
Queen  sent  for  Lord  Hartington,  she  then  sent  for  Lord 
Granville  ;  but  everyone  knew  in  advance  who  was  to  come 
into  office  at  last.  The  strife  lately  carried  on  had  been  the 
old  duel  between  two  great  men.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  stood 
up  against  Lord  Beaconsfield  for  some  years  and  fought  him 
alone.  He  had  dragged  his  party  after  him  into  many  a 
danger.  He  had  compelled  them  more  than  once  to  fight 
when  many  of  them  would  fain  have  held  back,  and  where 
none  of  them  saw  any  chance  of  victory.  Now,  at  last,  the 
battle  had  been  given  to  his  hands,  and  it  was  a  matter  of 
necessity  that  the  triumph  should  bring  back  to  power  the 
man  whose  energy  and  eloquence  had  inspired  the  struggle. 
The  Queen  sent  for  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  a  new  chapter  of 
English  history  opened,  with  the  opening  of  which  tliis  work 
has  to  close. 


INDEX. 


ABD 

ABD-EL-KADER,  saves  Christians 
in  Damascus,  237 

Abdul-Aziz  in  England,  327-28 

Aberdeen,  Lord,  Forei;^n  Secretary, 
31  ;  and  Pacifico  case,  97  ;  Prime 
Minister  Coalition  Ministry,  1852, 
128  ;  conversations  Avitii  Czar 
Nicholas,  136  ;  dislike  of  war,  146  ; 
and  Crimean  War,  162 

Aborigines  Protection  Society  and 
Jamaica  question,  282 

Abyssinian  war,  334-39 

Acre,  bombardment  of,  30 

Adams  and  Alabama,  247 ;  and 
recognition  of  South  meaning  war, 
248-49 

Adullamites,  the,  291  ;  and  Lord 
Derby,  294 

Afghanistan,  war  in,  1841-42, 44-57, 

Afghans  in  Sikh  war,  175  ;  war  in, 
425-26 

Agricultural  labourer,  the,  383-86 

Akbnr  Khan,  son  of  Dost  Mohammed, 
48;  kills  Macnaghten,  49;  treating 
with  English,  50;  interview  wili 
Lady  Macnaghten,  52 ;  defeated, 
54 

Alabama,  Confederate  privateer,  246- 
48,  251  ;  claims,  374-78 

Alamayou,  son  of  Theodore  of  Abys- 
sinia, death  of,  339 

Alexander  IL  comes  to  Russian 
throne,  157 ;  and  Constantinople, 
415 

Alexandra,  Princess,  married  to 
Prince  of  Wales,  258-59 

Allen  and  Manchester  rescue,  317 

Alma,  battle  of,  147-48 

Alsace  yielded  to  Germany,  372 

19 


A  us 

America  and  Fur  ign  Legion  Act, 
161  ;  and  Congress  of  Paris,  161  ; 
civil  war  in,  239-251  ;  Altbaina 
claims,  374-78 

Andrassy  Note,  411-12 

Anne,  Queen,  and  Scotch  Church,  34 

Anson,  advances  on  Delhi,  180 

Anti-Corn  Law  League,  68 ;  its 
leaders,  69-72  ;  agitation  of,  72-75  ; 
conversion  of  Peel,  75-77  ;  Dis- 
raeli's opposition,  78-84 

Anti-Slavery  Society  and  Jamaica 
question,  282 

Arch,  Joseph,  384-86 

Arirvll,  Duke  of,  278-79;  Indian 
Office,  3ol 

Arnauil.  St.,  and  Crimea,  147  ;  death 
of,  158 

Arrow,  thQ  Lor<"ha,  164-67 

Artisans'  Dwelling  Bill,  404 

Ashantee  War,  25:;,  396-97 

Ash  burton  Treaty,  (jij 

Ashlev,  Lord — see  Shaflesburv 

AtLintic  cable,  164  ;    laid,  29n'-99 

Antonelli,  svmpathv  with  Nortli, 
242 

Auckland,  Lord,  and  Dost  Mohammed, 
46  ;  succeeded  by  Lord  EUeii- 
borough,  54 

Austria,  war  with  Prussia,  men- 
tioned, 4  ;  and  Turkish  Avar  with 
Mohammed  Ali,  30  ;  Hungarian 
rebellion,  113 ;  Kossuth  in  Eng- 
land, 114—15 ;  war  with  France. 
217-18,  221;  and  Polish  insurrec- 
tion, 255-56  ;  war  with  Prussia,  298  ; 
war  with  Denmark,  357-60 

Australia,  discovery  of  gold  in,  1C8; 
and  transportation,  168 


434 


INDEX. 


AUS 

Australian  Islands,  the,  309-10 
Ayrton,  Mr.,  unpopularity  of,  371 
Azimoolah  Khan,   in  England,  183- 

84  ;    makes  terms  with  CaAvnpore 

garrison,  186 


BALAKLAVA,  battle  of,  150 
Ballot  Bill  of  187],3li8-70 

Ballot,  vote  by,  demanded  by  Char- 
tists, 18 

Bank  Chnrter  Act,  64 

Baring,  Mr.,  budget  of,  30-31 

— , — ,  and  Bulgarian  atrocities,  413 

Baxter,  Mr.,  resigns  S sere 'ary ship, 
Treasury,  395 

Beaconsfield — see  Disraeli 

Beale,  James,  advises  Mill  to  stand 
for  Westminster,  269 

Beales,  Mr.  E.,  and  Polish  insurrec- 
tion, 255  ;  and  reform  meeting, 
Hyde  Park,  295-97 

Bean,  attempts  life  of  Queen,  43 

Bedcliamber  question,  the,  37-'!9 

Bentinck,  Lord  George.  fo;iii>  pro- 
tection party,  82  ;  and  sugar  duties, 
87 

Bentinck,  Lord  W.,  suppression  of 
Suttee,  175 

Berar,  nnnexation  of,  175 

Berlin  Memorandum,  412  ;  Treaty  of, 
421-22 

Bernard,  Mr.  M.,  and  Alabama  com- 
mission, 376 

Bernard,  Simon,  accomplice  of  Orsini, 
trial  of,  201,  204-205 

Bessarabia  ceded  to  Russia,  422-23 

Beyrout,  massacre  in,  237 

Birmingham,  Radical  treeting  in,  in 
1837,  16 ;  Chartist  riot  in,  19  ; 
manufacture  of  Orsini  bombs  at, 
201 

Bismarck  and  Schleswig-ITolstein 
question,  257  ;  and  Black  Sea 
Clause,  373-74  ;  Congress  of  Berlin, 
420-21 

Black  Sea  ncutr.'ili>ed,  160 ;  clause 
abrogated,  373-74 

Blanc,  Dr.,  Abyssinian  prisoner,  335, 

.107 

Bukhara,  Burnes's  travels  in,  45 ; 
English  prisoners  in,  56-57 

Borough  franchise  and  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, 264 

Bosnia,  rising  in,  410-11 ;  and  treaty 
of  Berlin  i.i,422 

Bosphorus,  no  foreign   ship   of   war 


BUO 

admitted  into,  30 ;  question  of, 
144-45  ;  and  Congress  of  Paris, 
160 

Bosquet,  General,  on  Charge  of  Light 
Brigade,  150 

Bourke,  Mr.,  and  Irish  University 
Bill,  393 

Bowlby,  Mr.,  murdered  by  Chinese, 
235 

Bowring,  Sir  John,  and  Lorcha  Arrow, 
165,  i67 

Bramwell,  Baron,  and  ticket  of  leave 
system,  169 

Bright,  John,  and  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  71, 72  ;  on  Irish  famine,  74  ; 
and  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act,  103; 
and  Peace  Society,  146  ;  imseated, 
167,  209  ;  Disraeli's  Reform  Hill, 
219  ;  and  'Fancv  Franchises,'  220  ; 
at  Willis's  R  .oms,  221  ;  and 
Palmerston  Ministry,  224  ;  and 
Lords  on  Paper  Duty,  229-30  ;  and 
Alabama,  247  ;  on  Cobden's  death, 
267 ;  and  new  Parliament,  1865, 
271;  and  Adullamites,  291;  and 
reform  agitation,  1806,  295  ;  and 
Disraeli's  reform  by  resolution,  300  ; 
on  suspension  Habeas  Corpus  in 
Ireland,  311  ;  and  Manchester 
prisoners,  317 ;  and  Irish  State 
Church,  o4o-44;  President,  Board 
of  Trade,  350  ;  Chancellor,  Duchy 
of  Lancaster,  395 ;  and  leadership, 
405  ;  and  Bulgarian  atrocities, 
413 

British  Columbia,  founded  by  Lytton, 
215 ;  and  confederation,  307 

Broadhead  and  Sheffield  outrages, 
319-21 

Brougham,  Lord,  character  of,  6-7 ; 
and  sugar  duties,  87  ;  and  Pacifico 
case,  97  ;  opposes  Great  Exhibition, 
107 ;  and  Jews,  210 ;  death  of, 
348-49 

Bruce,  Abj^s^inian  traveller,  335 

Bruce,  Frederick,  and  Chinese  war, 
1859-60,  233-35 

Bruce,  in  Gladstone  ministry,  1868, 
351  ;  and  Parliamentary  Elections 
Committee,  369  ;  and  liquor  ques- 
tion, 381  ;  leaves  Home  Office,  394  ; 
becomes  Lord  Aberdart»,  395 

Br^'don,  Dr.,  the  last  man  of  the  army 
of  Cabul,  53  ;  in  siege  of  Lucknow, 
194 

Buccleuch,  Duke  of,  opposed  to  repeal 
of  corn  law,  75 


INDEX, 


435 


BUG 


CLO 


Buckingham,     Duke     of,      Colonial 

Secretary,  303 
Bulgaria,   insurrection   in,  410  ;    the 

atrocities,  410-14 ;  and   Treaty   of 

Berlin,  421 
Bull  Run,  battle  of,  241 
BiiUer,    Charles,    in     Parliament    of 

1S37,  8 
Burdett,  Sir  F.,  and  Dundonald,  239 
Burke,  Colonel,  316 
Burnes,  Alexander,   in  Afghanistan, 

45;    mutilation  of  despatches,  46; 

murder  of,  48 
Butt,  Isaac,  and  home  rule,  390-91 
Byron  controversy,  389 


CABUL,  proverb  concerning,  45; 
Burnes  at,  45  ;  entry  of  Sliah 
Soojah,  47;  withdrawal  of  British 
army  from,  51-53  ;  entered  hv 
Pollock,  55;  bazaar  of,  destroyed, 
55  ;  Dost  Mohammed,  in  again,  57  ; 
murder  of  Cavagnari  in,  425 

*Caesar,  unemploved,'  term  applied  to 
Durham,  23 

Caffre  war,  1850,  120 

Caimes,  Professor,  opposes  Irish  Uni- 
versity Bill,  393 

Cairns,  "Sir  Hugh,  after  Lord,  209, 
279-80  ;  Lord'Chancellor,  330 

Cambridge,  Duke  of,  and  Great  Exhi- 
bition, 108 

Cameron,   Captain,    Abyssinian    pri- 

..    soner,  335-36 

Campbell,  Lord,  opposes  Great  Exhi- 
bition, 107 

— ,  Sir  Colin,  at  Luckuow,  192  ; 
advances  on  Cawnpure,  19.'>  ;  re- 
conquers Lucknow,  194  ;  announces 
end  of  mutiny,  195 

Canada,  in  1837,  20 ;  Papineau's  re- 
bellion, 21  ;  Durham's  mission, 
22-25;  Canadian  Government  Bill, 
25 ;  and  confederation,  306-309  ; 
Fenian  invasion  of,  315 

Canning,  Lord,  and  Pacifico  case,  97  ; 
and  Peelites,  104  ;  Governor-General 
India,  174-176 ;  Indian  mutiny, 
177-78;  capture  of  Delhi.  18  i  ; 
proclamation,  196-98 ;  Viceroy, 
200  ;  death,  266 

Canrobert  at  Crimea,  158 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  and  Prin- 
cess Victoria's  accession,  2  ;  and 
Public  Worship  I'.ill,  399,  400 

Canton,   Port   of,    thrown  open,   27 ; 


bombarded  1 65 ;  captured,  206- 
207 

Cardwell,  and  Peelites,  104  ;  on  Ellen- 
borough  despatch,  197  ;  and  Con- 
spiracy Bill,  206  ;  Irish  Secretary, 
223 ;  unsuccessfully  opposed  by 
Thackeray  at  Oxford,  265  ;  and 
Jamaica,  282  ;  and  Canadian  Con- 
federation, 308 ;  War  Secretary, 
351  ;  war  reforms,  363-64 

Carlisle,  Lord,  and  Bedchamber  ques- 
tion, 37 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  and  Jamaica  ques- 
tion, 286 

Carnai-von,  Lord,  Colonial  Secretary, 
1866,  294  ;  Colonial  Secretary,  1 87'4, 
397;  resigns  on  'Ten  Minutes' 
Bill,  301-303  ;  resigns,  418 

Cashmere  and  Kunjeet  Sinjh,  46 

Catherine  II.  and  Treaty  of  Kutchuk- 
Kninardji,  138 

Catholic  emancipation,  58 

Cavat,mari,  Louis,  murder  of,  in  Cabul, 
425 

Cavour  and  Crimean  war,  158  ;  mid 
Congress  of  Paris,  161  ;  and  Na- 
poleon's Italian  policy,  201,  217-18; 
sympathy  with  North,  242;  com- 
pared with  Bismarck,  257 

Cawnpore,  story  of,  182-191 

Cecil — see  Salisbury 

Cetewavo,  427-29 

C:halmers,  Dr.,  34-35 

Chartism,  16-19;  88-91 

Chelmsford,  Lord,  and  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill,  105  ;  and  Lorcha  Arrowy 
166  ;  removed  from  woolsack,  330- 
31  ;  and  Ab}  ssinian  prisoners,  3.i5 

— ,  General  Lord,  in  South  Africa, 
429 

Chester  Castle,  Fenian  attack  on,  315 

Chevalier,  Michel,  227 

Chimneys,  prohibition  of  children 
climbing,  28 

Childers,  Hugh,  in  Gladstone  Ministry, 
1868,  351 ;  resigns,  395 

Children,  regulation  of  labour  of,  28 

Chillianwallah,  battle  of,  175 

China,  opium  war,  25-28 ;  Lorcha 
Arrow,  164-67  ;  war  with,  233-37 

Chupatties,  the,  177 

Church  Patronage  Scotland  Bill,  398 

Clarendon,  Lortl,  Foreign  Secretary, 
275,  350  ;  and  Alabama  claimS| 
374-75 

Clerkenwell  explosion,  317-18 

Clontarf,  O'Connell's  meeting  at,  60 


436 


INDEX. 


CLY 


DER 


Clyde,  Lord — see  Campbell,  Sir  Colin 

Coalition  Ministry,  I'iS  ;  fall  of,  154- 
55 

Cobden,  enters  Parliament  in  1841, 
o2  ;  Anti-Corn  Law  League,  69-7 1  ; 
Palmerston's  foreign  policy,  97  ; 
Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act,  103  ; 
Peace  Society,  14G  ;  Loi'cha  Arrow, 
1G6-67  ;  refuses  office  under  Palmer- 
ston,  223-24  ;  connnercial  treaty 
with  France,  22G-27  ;  death  of, 
267 

Cockburn,  speech  on  Pacifico  case,  97- 
98 

Cochrane — see  Dundonald 

Coleridge,  Samuel,  and  postal  system, 
14-15 

Collier,  Sir  Ptobert,  380 

Columbia  River  and  Oregon  Treaty, 
67 

Commercial  Treaty  with  France,  226- 
27 

Conciliation  Hail  and  O'Connell,  60 

Condon,  or  Shore  and  Manchester 
rescue,  317 

Confederation  of  North  American  Pro- 
vinces, 306-309 

Congress  of  Berlin,  420-21 

Conolly,  Captain,  prisoner  in  BoTv- 
hara,  57 

*  Conservative,'  first  use  of  term,  8 

Consort,  Prince,  marriage  of  to  Queen 
announced,  39  ;  character,  40  ;  mar- 
riage, 41  ;  long  unpopular,  42;  and 
duelling  system,  42  ;  and  Great  Ex- 
hibition, 106-9  ;  and  Palmerston's 
foreign  policy,  111-13;  unpopular 
during  Crimean  war,  151  ;  and 
Louis  Napoleon,  157  ;  death  of, 
244-45 

Conspiracy  to  Murder  Bill,  199-206; 
dropped,  209 

Ccinstantine,  his  travelling  contrasted 
with  Peel's,  12 

Constantinople  Conference,  415-16 

Conyngham,  Lord,  and  Queen's  acces- 
sion, 2 

Cooke,  I\Ir.,  and  electric  tclei:craph,  12 

Co-operative  societies,  324-27 

Copyright  question,  64 

Corn  Laws — see  Anti-Corn  Law 
League 

Corrv,  Mr,  at  Admiralty,  303 

Coup  d'etat,  116-18 

Cowcn,  J()se))'i.  and  Queen's  Title  Bill, 
408 

Gran  bourne — see  Salisbury 


Cranbrook,     Lord — see    Hardy,     Ga- 

thorne 
Crete,  insurrection  in.  327,  410 
Crimean  war,  132-162  ;  and  Sepoy,  176 
Criminal  law,  commission  of  inquiry 

into,  28 
Crofton,  Sir  Walter,    and    ticket-cf 

leave  system,  169 
Croker,  J.  VV.,  and  Dundonal  1,  239 
Cross,  Mr.,  Home  Secretary,  397  ;  and 

Artisans'  Dwelling  BilU  404 
Crystal  Palace.  109' 
Cutnbeilmd,  Didveof,  4 
Cunard  Line  established,  18 
Customs  svsteni,  226 


T)AILY   NEWS    and   Bulgarian 

-*-^     atrocities,  412-13 

Dalhousie,  Lord,  in  India,  174  ;  dis- 
regards Hindoo  principle  of  adop- 
tion, 183  ;  death  of,  266 

Bailing,  Lord,  '  There  was  a  Palmer- 
ston,'  118 

Damascus,  massacre  in,  237 

Danube,  navigation  of  thrown  open, 
160  ;  principalities  and  Congress  of 
Paris,  161 

Dardanelles,  no  foreign  war  ships  ad- 
mitted into,  30  ;  question  of,  144- 
45  ;  and  Congress  of  Paris,  160 

Davis,  Jefferson,  President  Southern 
Confederacy,  240  ;  and  Confederate 
navy,  246  ;  captured,  250 

Davis,  J.  C.  B.,  and  Alabama  com- 
mission, 376 

Davis,  Thomas,  and  '  Young  Ireland,' 
91 

Death,  decrease  of  punishment  of,  28 

Ddiii,  miitiny  in,  172;  princes  of, 
killed  by  Hodson,  191 ;  old  king 
sent  to  Kangoon,  195 

Denman,  Lord,  Evidence  Act,  210-11 

Denmark,  war  with  Prussia  and 
Austria,  257-60 

Derby,  Lord,  the  Elder,  in  Parlia- 
ment, 1837,  9;  character  of,  10; 
Colonial  Secretary,  1841,  31  ;  op- 
posed to  opening  of  ports,  74-75  ; 
vote  of  censure  in  Pacitico  case,  96  ; 
sent  for,  1851,  103;  takes  ollice, 
121 ;  and  protection,  122 ;  fails  to 
form  ministry,  155 ;  and  Lorcha 
Arrow,  165-66  ;  and  Indian  Go- 
vernment, 199  ;  new  ministry,  207; 
contrasted  with  his  son,  208  ;  droi)3 
Conspiracy  ]{ill,  209  ;    and   reform 


INDEX. 


437 


D£B 


ELL 


schemes,  219 ;  and  paper  duty,  228 ; 
on  Parliament  of  1865,  268  ;  forms 
ministry,  294  ;  phrase  '  Leap  in  the 
Dark '  wrongly  ascribed  to,  306  ; 
and  Manchester  prisoners,  317 ;  re- 
tirement of,  329  ;  death  of,  353-55 

Derby,  Lord,  the  Youngor,  Indian 
Secretary',  199  ;  Colonial  Secretarj', 
207  ;  contrasted  with  his  father, 
208-9;  Indian  Secretary',  214; 
Foreign  Secretary,  1866,  294  ;  and 
Atlantic  cable,  298  ;  announces  his 
fatiier's  retirement,  329  ;  and  Abys- 
sinia, 337  ;  and  Irish  State  Church, 
844  ;  Foreign  Secretary,  1874,  397 ; 
and  Herzegovina  rising,  410 ;  and 
Andrassy  Notp,  411  ;  and  Berlin 
Memorandum,  412  ;  and  Constanti- 
nople Conference,  415 ;  resigns, 
418-19 

Dickens,  Charles,  and  Jamaica  ques- 
tion, 286  ;  death  of,  339-60 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  and  republicanism, 
382-83 

Dillon,  John  B,,  and  'Young  Ireland,' 
93  ;  in  Parliament,  270 

Dillwyn  and  Irish  State  Church,  264 

Disraeli,  in  Parliament  of  1837,  8; 
earl}'  career,  79-81 ;  attack  on  Peel, 
81-82;  sugar  duties,  87;  Papal 
Hierarchy,  JiOl-3  ;  'There  was  a 
Palmerston,'  118  ;  leader  of  House, 
121-22  ;  abandons  Protection,  123 ; 
Budget  of  1852,  127  ;  answered  by 
Gladstone,  128  ;  on  coalitions,  154- 
65, 157  ;  speaking  contrasted  with  G. 
C.  Lewis's,  163  ;  and  Lorcha  Arrow, 
166  ;  and  Indian  Mutiny,  178  ;  and 
Conspiracy  Bill,  203,  205;  Chan- 
cellor Exchequer,  207,  209  ;  and 
Jews,  209-10;  Reform  Bill,  218- 
21  ;  and  Graham,  222 ;  on  Lords, 
229;  on  Reform  Bill,  231-32; 
and  Danish  question,  260-61 ;  and 
Cobden's  death,  267 ;  and  new 
Parliament,  1865,  271 ;  face  to  face 
with  Gladstone,  277-78  ;  and  Lowe, 
290-91  ;  Chancellor  of  Exchequer, 
1866,  294 ;  and  Reform  disturb- 
ances, 296 ;  and  reform,  299  ;  re- 
form by  resolution,  300  ;  the  '  Ten 
Minutes  '  Bill,  SOl-3 ;  the  new  Re- 
form Bill,  303-5  ;  educating  his 
party,  328-29 ;  Prime  Minister, 
329-31 ;  attacked  by  Salisbury, 
345  ;  dissolves,  346  ;  resigns,  349- 
60 ;  and  Irish  State  Church,  352- 


53;  and  army  purchase,  366; 
and  Joseph  Arch,  385-86  ;  and 
Home  Rule,  389  ;  Irish  University 
Bill,  393  ;  declines  office.  394; 
Prime  Minister,  1874,  397;  de- 
scribes Salisbury  as  master  of  jibes 
and  flouts  and  jeers,  401  ;  Public 
Worship  Bill,  401  ;  and  Mr,  Plim- 
soll,  403  ;■  contrasted  with  Glad- 
stone, 405-6 ;  Suez  Canal  shares, 
407;  South  African  confederation, 
407 ;  appoints  Lvttnn  Vicerov  of 
India,  408  ;  Queen's  Title  Bill,  408- 
9;  Eastern  Question,  409-12  ;  Bul- 
garian atrocities,  413  ;  becomes 
Lord  Beaconsfifld,  414  ;  speech  at 
Aylesbury,  414  ;  and  Russia,  415— 
16;  on  Derby's  resignation,  419;  at 
Congress  of  Berlin,  420-21  ;  '  Peace 
with  Honour,'  423  ;  popularity  of 
Government  on  the  wane,  425 ; 
dissolves,  431 

Divorce  Act,  167 

Dost  Mohammed;  45-48,  57 

Drouvn  de  Lbuvs  and  Pacifico  case. 

Druses,  237 

Dublin  University  Tests  Bill,  394 
Duelling,  Prince  Consort  and,  42 
Dutferin,  Lord,  in  Lebanon,  237-38 ; 

in  Gladstone  Ministry,  1868,  351 
Duffy,  C.   G.,  and  '  Young  Ireland.' 

92  94 

Dundonald,  death  of,  238-39 
Dunn,  John,  429 
Durham  Letter,  101 
— ,  Lord,  22-25,  307-8 


T^  ASTERN  Question,  132-40;  410- 

ili     12 

East  India  Company  and  China,  26  ; 
and  King  of  Delhi,  172  ;  and  Oude, 
175  ;  war  with  Persia,  176  ;  end  of, 
198-200 

Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  99-106 

Egypt  and  Mohammed  Ali,  29-30; 
Viceroy  in  England,  328  ;  purchase 
of  Suez  Canal  shares,  407 

Election  petitions,  331-34 

Elgin,  Lord,  and  Indian  Mutiny,  179  ; 
treatv  with  China.  207  ;  China  war, 
233,  235-36  ;  death  of,  266 

Ellenborough,  Lord,  Governor-Gene- 
ral of  India,  54;  character  of,  54- 
65  ;  proclamation  of,  57  ;  annexes 
Srjnde,   65  ;    on  Canning's  procla- 


433 


INDEX. 


mation,    197 


ELL 
Indian 


GLA 


Secretary, 


207,  214  •,  Polish  insurrection,  255 
Elliott,  Captain,  and  opium  war,  27 
—   Sir    Henry,    and    Constantinople 

Conference,    415 ;     transferred    to 

Vienna,  417 
Elphinstone,     General,      and     Cabul 

rising,  48,  50,  53  ;  death  of,  56 
Emmet,  Robert,  and  O'Connell,  59 
Executions,  public,  abolished,  33 
Exeter,  Conservative  victory  at    in 

1875,  395 
Exhibition,   Great,   106-9;    of  1862, 

251 
Evangelicals,  the,  399 
Ej'ie,  Governor,  and  Jamaica,  282-87 


FACTORY  ACTS,  141 
'  Fancy  Franchises,'  220 

Fawcett,  Mr.,  and  army  purchase, 
367  ;  Dublia  University  Tests  Bill, 
394 

Fenian  movement,  312-19 

Field,  Cyrus  W.,  and  Atlantic  cable, 
164, 298-99 

Finlay,  Mr.,  and  Greek  Government, 
95 

Fish,  Hamilton  and  Alabama  com- 
mission, 376 

Fisher}--  question,  Canadian,  376-77 

Fitzgerald,  Lord  Edward,  and  O'Con- 
nell, 69,  312 

Florida,  Confederate  privateer,  245 

Forbes,  Archibald,  148 

Foreign  Legion  Act,  161 

Forster,  W.  E.,  Under-Secretary  Colo- 
nies, 275-76,  278  ;  Vice-President 
Council,  351 ;  Education  Bill,  360- 
63 ;  Ballot  Bill,  368-69  ;  and 
leaJership,  405 

Fortescue,  Chichester,  Irish  Secre- 
tary, 275 

Fowke,  Captain,  and  Exhibition, 
1862,  251 

Fox,  \V.  J.,  and  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  72  ;  unseated,  167 

— ,  Charles  James,  on  government  of 
Ireland,  349 

France  and  Mohammed  Ali,  30 ; 
Tahiti,  66  ;  Pacifico  case,  96  ;  death 
of  Louis  Philippe,  99  ;  Louis  Na- 
poleon, 115;  coup  d'etat,  117; 
Crimean  war,  143-147 ;  Orsini 
plot,  202;  war  with  Austria,  217- 
18,  221 ;  Commercial  Treaty,  226- 
227 ;    Chinese  war,    235-36  ;    and 


Lebanon,  237-38  ;  sympathy  with 
South,  242 ;  Mexico,  249-50  ;  Po- 
lish insurrection,  255-56  ;  war  with 
Prussia,  371-72 

Francis,  John,  attempts  life  of  Queen, 
43 

Franklin,  Sir  John,  last  expedition, 
67 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  and  South  Africa, 
428-30 

Free  Trade,  58,  68-84,  122 

Froude,  James  Anthony,  32 ;  and 
South  Africa,  407 

— ,  Richard  Hurrell,  and  Oxford 
movement,  32 

Fuad  Pasha  and  Lebanon  outrages, 
238 


n  ANDAMAK,  Treaty  of,  426 

vJ    Gaol  system,  improvement  of,  28 

Garibaldi,  on  Gladstone  and  Poerio, 
131,  263,  328 

Genoa,  death  of  O'Connell  at,  62 

George  III.,  2 

Gettysburgh,  battle  of,  249 

Gibson,  Milner,  and  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  72 ;  and  Lorcha  Arroiv^ 
166 ;  unseated,  167 ;  and  Con- 
spiracy Bill,  205-206  ;  offered  place 
by  Palmerston,  223-24 ;  unseated, 
347 

'  Gigantic  innovation,'  phrase  of 
Gladstone's,  230 

Gordon,  G.  VV.,  and  Jamaica,  281-82, 
285-86,  287 

Gortschakoff,  General,  withdraws 
from  Sebastopol,  159 

— ,  Prince,  and  Polish  insurrection, 
256 

Goschen,  Vice-President  Board  of 
Trade,  275  ;   and  leadership,  405 

Gosford,  Lord,  and  Canadian  rebel- 
lion, 21 

Gough,  Sir  Hugh,  afterwards  Lord, 
and  opium  war,  27  ;  and  Sikh  war, 
66,  175 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  in  parliament  of 
1837,  9;  not  in  cabinet,  1841,32; 
Maynooth  grant,  63 ;  and  Palmer- 
ston's  foreign  policy,  97  ;  and  Eccle- 
siastical Titles  Act,  103 ;  and 
Peelites,  104 ;  and  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill,  105  ;  Chancellor  of  Ex- 
chequer, Coalition  Ministry,  128  ; 
attacks  Disraeli's  budget,  1852,  J28  ; 
character  and  early  career  of,  12^ 


INDEX, 


439 


GRA 


31 ;  Poerio  protest,  131 ;  objec- 
tion to  war,  146  ;  resists  Roebuck's 
Crimean  motion,  154  ;  resigns,  156  ; 
speaking  contrasted  with  G.  C. 
Lewis's,  163  ;  and  Lorcha  Arroic, 
166  ;  opposes  Divorce  Act,  167  ; 
Conspiracy  Bill,  206,  209  ;  Ionian 
Islands,  216-17  ;  Chancellor  of  Ex- 
chequer, 223 ;  Paper  Duty,  227, 
231  ;  and  Palaierston  on  war,  252  ; 
his  financial  policy  made  use  of  by 
Palmerston,  261 ;  his  advance  to- 
wards Radicalism,  262-64 ;  elected 
South  Lancashire,  271  ;  face  to  face 
with  Disraeli,  277-78 ;  leader  in 
Commons,  276  ;  and  Reform  Bill, 
1866,  282-92 ;  resigns,  292  ;  and 
Reform  agitation,  295  ;  defeated 
South  Lancashire,  elected  Green- 
wich, 346 ;  resolutions  on  Irish 
State  Church,  343-46  ;  Prime  Minis- 
ter, 350 ;  disestablishment  Irish 
Church,  851-55  ;  land  question, 
355-57  ;  Land  Bill,  358  ;  abolishes 
Army  Purchase,  364-68 ;  growing 
unpopularity',  379-80  ;  Home  Rule 
movement,  391  ;  Irish  University 
Education  Bill,  391-94  ;  resigns 
and  returns  to  office,  394  ;  dissolves 
Parliament  and  resigns,  396  ;  re- 
tires from  leadership,  398 ;  and 
Public  Worship  Bill,  400  ;  religious 
controversy,  405  ;  contrasted  with 
Disraeli,  406  ;  Bulgarian  atrocities, 
413-14 ;  and  Jingo  mob,  424 ; 
Prime  Minister,  431 

Graham,  Sir  James,  Home  Secretary, 
31 ;  Mazzini's  letters,  65  ;  Eccle- 
siastical Titles  Act,  103 ;  and 
Peelites,  104  ;  resigns,  156 ;  Con- 
spiracy Bill,  206,  209  ;  '  Red  In- 
dian of  debate,'  222 ;  death  of, 
266 

Grant,  Sir  Hope,  at  Cawnpore,  194 ; 
and  China  war,  1859-60,  235 

— ,  Sir  J.  P.,  sent  to  Jamaica,  287 

— ,  Robert,  and  Jews,  210 

— ,  U.  S.,  takes  Vicksburg,  249 

Granville,  Lord,  Foreign  Secretary, 
117  ;  unable  to  form  ministry,  222- 
23  ;  Colonial  Secretary,  350  ;  sent 
for,  431 

hreat  Western,  Transatlantic  voyage 
of,  12 

jrreece,  Pacifico  case,  95-96 ;  and 
Ionian  islands,  216-17 ;  and  Treaty 
of  Berlin,  421-22 


HEN 

Greenwood,  Mr.  F.,  and  Suez  Canal 

shares,  407 
Gretna    Green,    marriage     of    Lord 

Durham  at,   22 ;    marriages   made 

illegal,  170 
Grey,  General,  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  329- 

30 
Grey,    Sir   George,    Home   Secretary, 

84  ;  ticket  of  leave   system,    170  ; 

sus})ension  of  Habeas  Coi-pus  in  Ire 

land,  311 
Grey,  Lord,  influence  of  Lord  Durham 

over,   22  ;  Colonial   Secretary,   84 ; 

ticket   of    leave    system,    168-69  ; 

Reform  Bill,  220 
Gros,  Baron,  treaty  with  China,  207, 

233,  235 
Grote,  Mr.,  in  Parliament  of  1837,  8 
Guizot    and     Mohammed    Ali,    30  ; 

Spanish  marriages,  87 
Gulliver,  allusion  to,  37 
Gurnev,  Russell,  and  Public  Worship 

Bill;  399 
Gvvalior  in  Indian  mutiny,  194-95 


HALL,  SIR  BENJAMIN,  and  Jews, 
211-12 

Hamilton,  attempts  life  of  Queen,  43 

Hanover,  and  British  crown,  4-5 

Harcourt,  Sir  William,  and  Public 
Worship  Bill,  400-401  ;  and  leader- 
ship,  405 

Hardy,  Mr.  (iathorne,  aftenvarda 
Lord  Cranbrook,280  ;  Home  Secre- 
tarv,  306  ;  Irish  State  Church, 
344',  353  ;  War  Secretary,  397  ;  on 
Cowen's  speech  on  Queen's  Title 
Bill,  408;   Lord  Cranbrook,  420 

Hartington,  Lord,  at  Willis's  Rooms, 
221-22  ;  defeated  North  Lancashire, 
346  ;  elected  Radnor  Boroughs, 
346-47 ;  in  Gladstone  ministry, 
1868,  351  ;  chosen  leader,  405 ; 
sent  for,  431 

Hastings,  Warren,  198 

Hatherley,  Lord,  Lord  Chancellor, 
351  ;  resigns,  391 

Hatteras,  defeated  by  Alabama,  246 

Havelock,  Sir  Henry,  Indian  mutiny. 
179  ;  marches  on  Cawnpore,  189 ; 
relieves  Lucknow,  192 ;  death  of, 
193 

Head,  Sir  F.,  Canadian  Confederation, 
308 

Henley,  Mr.,  President,  Board  of  Trade. 
207 ;  resignation,  220 


440 


INDEX. 


HEN 

Hennessy,  Sir  John  Pope,  and  Polish 
insurrection,  255 

Herat,  Prince  of  and  Dost  Mohammed, 
45  ;  besieged  by  Persia,  176 

Herbert,  Auberon,  and  Republicanism, 
383  ;  and  Joseph  Arch,  385 

— ,  Sidney,  and  Pacifico  case,  97  ; 
and  Peelites,  104  ;  asks  Miss  Night- 
ingale to  go  to  Crimea,  152  ;  re- 
signs, 156;  and  Lorcha  ArroWy 
166;  Conspiracy  Bill,  206,  209; 
at  Willis's  Rooms,  221  ;  War 
Minister,  223  ;  death  of,  266 

Herzegovina,  rising  in,  410-11  ;  and 
Treaty  of  Berlin,^422 

Hicks- Beach,  Sir  Michael,  Colonial 
Secretary,  420 

Hill,  Matthew  Davenport,  prison  re- 
former, 14 

— ,  Sir  Rowland,  postal  system,  14- 
16 

— ,  Thomas  Wright,  father  of  Row- 
land Hill,  14 

HindobtaTi,  proverb  concerning,  45 — 
see  India 

Hoar,  Mr.  E.  R.,  and  Alabama  com- 
mission, 876 

Hodson,  of  '  Hodson's  Horse,'  kills 
Delhi  princes,  191-92 

H'  Ikar,  in  Indian  mutiny,  194 

Holland,  Sir  Henry,  death  of,  388 

Holy  places,  lo7-40 

Home  Rule  movement,  389-91 

Hope,  Admiral,  and  Chinese  War, 
1869-60,  234 

— ,  Beresford,  and  Ecclesiastical  Titles 
Act,  103 

Howley,  Dr.,  2 

Hudson's  Bay  Territories,  307,  309 

Huijhes,  Thomas,  elected  Lambeth, 
270 

Hungary,  Kossuth's  rebellion  in, 
113-15 

Hunt,  Ward,  censure  on  Westbury, 
268;  Chancellor  of  Exchequer,  331  ; 
Admiralty,  397  ;  navy  scare,  398 

Hult,  Mr.,  275 

Huxley,  Professor,  and  Jamaica 
question,  286  ;  and  School  Board, 
363 

Hyde  Piirk,  reform  meetings  in,  295- 
97  ;  305 


JTTA 


1 


BRAITIM  PASHA,  29-30 

Income-tax  established  on  present 
basis  by  Peel,  64 


India,  the  mutiny,  170  ;  former  muti- 
nies, 1 72  ;  Hindoos  and  Mohammed- 
ans, 173-75  ;  the  Chupatties,  177  ; 
Canning,  178-79  ;  Punjaub  saved, 
179-80  ;  death  of  Henry  Lawrence, 
181  ;  Cawnpore,  182-91  ;  Hodson, 
of  '  Hodson's  Horse,'  kills  Delhi 
princes,  191 ;  Lucknow  relieved, 
192  ;  death  of  Ilavelock,  193  ;  the 
Ranee  of  Jhansi,  194 ;  end  of 
mutiny,  195  ;  Canning's  proclama- 
tion, 196-97  ;  end  of  John  Company, 
198-200  ;  troops  sent  from,  419-20 

Inkerman,  battle  of,  150-51 

Ionian  islands,  216-17 

Ireland,  potato  famine  in,  1845,  74, 
85-87  ;  O'Connell,  57-62  ;  '  Young 
Ireland,'  91-94;  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill,  104-5;  political  riots 
in,  123 ;  ticket-of-leave  system, 
109 ;  suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus, 
311  ;  Fenian  movement,  312-19 ; 
Irish  Church  question,  339-42 ; 
Mr.  Maguire's  motion,  342 ;  Mr. 
Gladstone's  resolutions,  343-46 ; 
University  Education  Bill,  391-94  j 
famine,  430 

Irish  Brigade,  103 

Isandlana,  defeat  of,  429 

Italj'  and  Crimean  war,  156, 158, 161 ; 
and  Franco-Austrian  war,  217-18, 
221 ;  and  Avar  between  Austria  and 
Prussia,  298 


JACOB,  Colonel,  and  Indian  mutiny, 
179 

Jamaica,  proposed  suspension  of  Con- 
stitution, 36  ;  Jamaica  Bill,  39  ; 
disturbance  in,  281-88 

James,  Edwin,  and  Bernard  trial,  204 

Japan,  murder  of  Mr.  Richardson, 
253-54  ;  bombardment  of  Kagosima, 
254  ;  insurrection  in,  254 

Jellalabad,  Sale  at,  52 ;  arrival  of 
Brydon  at,  53  ;  defeat  of  Akbar 
Khan  before,  54 

Jews,  disabilities  of,  28,  04,  210-14 

Jhansi,  annexation  of,  175  ;  Ranee  of, 
death  of,  194 

Jingoes,  the,  418 

John  Company — see  East  India  Com- 
pany 

John,  Prince  of  Denmark,  259 

Johnson,  Rcverdy,  and  Alabama 
claims,  374-75 

Juarez,  13enito,  and  Mexico,  249-50 


INDEX, 


441 


SAG 


MAC 


KAGOSIMA,  bombcirdment  of,  254 
Kars,  siege  of,  159,  160,  417 

Kearsarge  defeats  Alabama,  246 

Keble,  and  Oxford  Movement,  32,  34 

Kennington  Common  and  Chartism, 
89-90 

Kent,  Duke  of,  2 ;  and  Canadian 
Confederation,  308 

Kickham,  C.  J.,  314 

King,  Mr.  Locke,  and  county  fran- 
chise, 103  ;  and  property  qualifica- 
tion, 214 

Kinglake,  Mr.,  and  Conspiracy  Bill, 
203, 205 

Kingslev,  Canon,  and  Jamaica  ques- 
tion, 286 

Koli-i-noor  diamond,  175 

Kossuth,  Louis,  113-15,  328 

Kuper,  Admiral,  bombards  Kagosiraa, 
254 

Kutchuk-Kainardji,  Treaty  of,  138-40 


LABOUCHERE,  Mr.  (afterwards 
Lord  Taunton),  and  Canadian 
Confederation,  308 

Laird  and  Alabama,  246-47 

Landseer,  death  of,  388 

Langalibalele,  428 

Larkin,  and  Manchester  rescue,  317 

Lavalette,  M.,  and  holy  places,  138 

Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  179  ;  death  of, 
181-82,  182-83 

— ,  Lord,  and  Punjaub,  179-80  ;  and 
School  Boards,  363 

Layard,  Mr.,  character  of,  155  ;  and 
Lorcha  Arrow,  167  ;  in  office,  277  ; 
public  works,  351  ;  at  Constanti- 
nople, 417 

« Leap  in  the  Dark,'  the,  306 

Lebanon,  trouble  in,  237-38 

Lee  defeated  at  Gettysburg,  249  ;  sur- 
renders, 250 

Lesseps,  M.,  164 

Lewis,  Sir  G.  C,  Chancellor  of  Exche- 
quer, 156  ;  character,  163  ;  Home 
Secretary,  233 ;  Reform  Bill,  232  ; 
and  Palmerston  on  war,  252  ;  death 
of,  266 

Light  Brigade,  charge  of,  150 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  President,  239  ; 
calls  for  volunteers,  240 ;  and 
Wilkes'  case,  243;  assassination 
of,  251 

Liprandi,  General,  158 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  df  ith  of,  388 

Llano ver,  Lord — see  Hall,  Sir  B 

19* 


Lock,  Mr.,  taken  by  Chinese,  235 

Lorraine  yielded  to  Germany,  372 

Louis  Philippe  and  Mohammed  Ali, 
30  ;  Spanish  marriages,  87  ;  flight, 
88 ;  death,  99 

Lowe,  Mr.,  character,  106  ;  Disraeli's 
Budget,  1852, 127  ;  and  Lord  Robert 
Cecil,  276-77 ;  and  Reform  Bill, 
289-91  ;  refuses  office  under  Derby, 
294 ;  '  Our  New  Masters,'  306  ; 
Irish  State  Church,  345 ;  elected 
University  London,  347 ;  Budgets 
of,  370  ;  Match  Tax,  371 ;  resigns, 
394 ;  Home  Secretary,  395 ;  and 
Mr.  Baxter,  395 ;  and  leadership, 
405  ;  and  Queen's  Title  Bill,  408- 
409 

Lowther,  James,  Irish  Secretary,  420 

Lucan,  Lord,  and  Jews,  213 

Lucknow,  death  of  Henry  Lawrence 
at,  181 ;  relieved,  192 ;  captured, 
194 

Lushington,  Dr.,  death  of,  389 

Lyiidhurst,  Lord,  character,  7-8 ; 
Lord  Chancelicr,  31 ;  and  Jews, 
64;  Lorcha  Arrow,  165-66;  and 
Jews,  211  ;  and  Louis  Napoleon, 
226  ;  Paper  dutv,  228-29  ;  death 
of,  348 

Lyttop,  Lord,  the  Elder,  in  Parlia- 
ment, 1837,8;  censure  on  Russell, 
157;  and  Lorcha  Arroiv,  1 06; 
Colonial  Secretary,  214  ;  character, 
215;  Ionian  islands,  216-17;  on 
Lewis  and  Reform  Bill,  232  ;  death 
of,  388 

Lytton,  Lord,  the  Younger,  Viceroy 
of  India,  408 


MACAULAY,    Paymaster  General, 
84  ;  elected  for  "Edinburgh,  124  ; 

maiden  speech  on  Jewish  question, 

210  ;  death  of,  224-25 
McCarthx',  Sir  Charles,  and  Ashantee 

war,  1824,  396 
Macdonald,  Sir  J.  A.,  and  Alabama 

commission,  376 
McGee,  T.  D.,  and '  Young  Ireland,' 

94 
MacGahan,  and  Bulgarian  atrocities, 

413 
Macnaghten,  Sir  W.,  and  Dost  Mo- 
hammed, 47  ;  and  Cabul  rising,  48  ; 

murder  of,  49,  55 
Macnaghten,    Lady,   interview    with 

Akbar  Khan,  52 


442 


INDEX, 


MAC     . 

Mackintosh,  and  Jews,  210 

Maclean,  Roderick,  attempt  upon  the 
Queen,  44 

M'Laren,  Duncan,  elected  for  Edin- 
biirjzh,  270 

Magdala,  336  ;  capture  of,  338 

Magenta,  221 

M;iguire,  Mr.,  and  Manchester  rescue, 
317  ;  motion  on  Irish  State  Church, 
342-43 

Mahmoud,  Sultan,  war  with  Moham- 
med Ali,  death  of,  29 

MalakotFatta(;ked,  158 

Malmesbury,  Lord,  Foreign  Secretary, 
207 ;  and  Chinese  war,  1859-60, 
233-35 ;  moves  vote  of  censure, 
260 

Mamelon  battery,  158 

Manchester,  and  trades-union  out- 
rages, 320-21 

Mandeville,  Sir  John  and  Prester 
John, 335 

Manhood  suffrage,  demanded  by 
Chartists,  18 

Manitoba,  and  Confederation,  307 

Manners,  Lord  John,  public  works, 
207 

Manning,  Cardinal,  controversy  with 
Gladstone,  405 

Maori  war,  258 

Maronites,  237 

Martineau,  Miss,  story  of  Coleridge, 
and  postal  system,  14-15 

Mason,  Mr.,  243-44 

Mathew,  Father,  temperance  move- 
ment of,  and  O'Connell,  59 

Maximilian,  and  Mexico,  249  ;  shot, 
250 

Maynooth,  grant  to  college  at,  63 ; 
grant,  352 

Mayo,  Lord,  Chief  Secretary''  for 
Ireland,  207 ;  and  Irish  State 
Church,  348  ;  assassination  of,  379 

Mazzini,  opening  of  letters  of,  65 

Meade,  defeats  Lee  at  Gettysburg, 
249 

Meagher,  T.  F.,  and  '  Young  Ireland,' 
92 ;  transported,  93  ;  death  of,  94, 
312 

Meean  Meer,  Montgomery's  action  at, 
179 

Meerut,  outbreak  in,  171 

Meibourne,  Lord,  and  accession  of 
Princess  Victoria,  3  ;  character  of, 
5-6 ;  and  Jamaica  Bill,  36  ;  resigns, 
36 ;  returns  to  ofiice,  36-7 ;  and 
Bedchamber  question,  37-9  ;  resig- 


NAN 


nation  of,  and  death,  40  ;  and  Pro- 
testantism of  Prince  Albert,  41 

Members,  payment  of,  demanded  by 
Chartists,  18 

Mentschikoff,  Prince,  proposals  to 
Turkey,  140  ;  commanding  Russian 
forces,  147 

Merchant  Shipping  Pill,  404 

Mexico,  and  Louis  Napoleon,  249-50 

Mi  all,  Mr.,  and  Forster's  Education 
Bill,  363 

Milan,  entry  into,  221 

Militia  Bill,  119-20  ;  123 

Mill,  John  S.,  elected  Westminster, 
269-70  ;  and  Jamaica  question,  286  ; 
and  Gladstone's  Reform  Bill,  1866, 
289  ;  opposes  suspension  of  Habeas 
Corpus  in  Ireland,  311 ;  and 
Fenian  prisoners,  316-17  ;  on 
strikes,  323 ;  defeated  at  West- 
minster, 347  ;  death  of,  388 

Mitchel,  John,  and  '  Young  Ireland,' 
92  ;  transported,  93  ;  death  of,  94, 
312 

Mohammed  Ali,  29-30 

Mohammed,  Dost,  ruler  of  Cabul 
again,  57 

Moles  worth,  Sir  William,  in  Parlia- 
ment of  1837,  9 ;  and  Pacifico 
case,  97  ;  Colonial  Secretary,  157 

Monck,  Lord,  and  Canadian  Con- 
federation, 309 

Montauban,  and  Chinese  War,  1859- 
60,  235 

Monteagle,  Lord,  and  paper  duty, 
228 

Montefiore,  Mr.,  first  Jewish  sheriff 
of  London,  knightrd,  3-4 

Montenegro  and  Turkey,  411 ;  at 
war,  415  ;  and  Treaty  of  Berlin, 
421 

Montgomery,  Mr.  Robert,  and 
Punjaub,  179 

Montreal,  represented  by  M.  Papineau, 
21 

Morpeth,  Lord— see  Carlisle 

— ,  — ,  Sister  of,  and  Bedchamber 
question,  37 

Morse,  Professor,  and  electric  tele- 
graph, 12. 


NAAS,  Lord — see  Mayo 
Nagpore,  annexed,  175 
Nana  Sahib,  applied  to  by  Wheeler, 
183;     case    of,    183-84;     besieges 
Cawnpore,  185  ;  offers  terms,  186  ; 


INDEX, 


443 


NAP 


PAI 


his  treachery,  187-88  ;  massacre  of 
the  women,  189-90 ;  disappears, 
190-91 

Napier,  Lord,  and  AbA-ssinian  war, 
337-39 

Napoleon,  Louis,  and  Chartism,  90 ; 
character  of,  115  ;  coup  d'etat, 
116;  five  projects  of,  119;  visits 
England,  157 ;  and  Orsini,  200- 
201  ;  and  Cavour,  217-18  ;  enters 
Milan,  221 ;  distrust  of  in  England, 
225-26  ;  Commercial  Treaty,  227  ; 
and  Southern  Confederacy,  248 ; 
Mexico,  249-50  ;  Poland,  255-56  ; 
Danes,  259  ;  Prussian  War,  371-72  ; 
death  of,  387-88 

Napoleon,  Prince,  and  free  trade, 
226-27 

Napoleon,  Prince  Imperial,  death  of, 
429 

Nashville,  Confederate  privateer, 
245 

Nation,  newspaper,  91 

Navigation  laws,  repeal  of,  121 

Neale,  Colonel,  and  Prince  Satsuma, 
254 

Neill,  General,  at  Allahabad,  189 

Nelson,  Mr.  Justice,  and  Alabama 
commission,  376 

Nesselrode  Memorandum,  136 

New  Brunswick  and  Canadian  Con- 
federation, 807-308 

Newcastle,  Duke  of.  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, 223  ;  death  of,  266 

Newfoundland,  307 

Newman,  F.  W.,  33-34 

Newman,  John  Henry,  and  Oxford 
Movement,  32-34 ;  controversy 
with  Gladstone,  405 

New  South  Wales  and  transporta- 
tion, 167-68,  810 

Newspapers,  reduction  of  stamp  duty 
on,  28 

New  Zealand,  constitution  of,  123  ; 
Maori  insurrection  in,  253,  310 

Nicholas,  Emperor,  in  England,  135- 
36  ;  conversations  with  Sir  Hamil- 
ton Seymour,  137  ;  death  of,  156 

Nicholson,  killed  at  Delhi,  191 

Nightingale.  Miss  Florence,  at 
Crimea,  153 

Nonconformists  and  Forster's  Educa- 
tion Bill,  362-63 

Norfolk  Island  and  transportation, 
167-68 

Normanb}',  Lord,  and  Bedchamber 
question,  37-39.  and  coup  d'etat,  116 


Northcote,  Sir  Stafford,  280  ;  Presi- 
dent Board  of  Trade,  294  ;  Indian 
Secretary,  303  ;  and  Alabanm  com- 
mission, 376;  Chancellor  Exchequer, 
397  ;  Leader  in  House  of  Commons, 
430 
Nott,  General,  at  Candahar,  54 
Nova  Scotia  and  Canadian  Confedera- 
tion, 807-309 


A'BRIEN,    W.    S.,     and    *  Young 

U     Ireland,"  91-94,  312 

O'Brien  and  Manchester  rescue,  317 

Obstruction,  phvsical,  to  Kussell's 
Reform  Bill,  238 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  in  Parliament, 
1837,  11,  57  ;  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion, 58  ;  negro  slavery,  58  ;  Parlia- 
mentary system,  69 ;  monster 
meetings,  60 ;  imprisoned,  61  ; 
death,  62  ;  and  Jews,  210 

O'Connor,  Arthur,  attempt  upon 
Queen's  life,  43-44 

O'Connor,  Feargus,  and  Chartism, 
88-89 

Opium  war,  25-28 

Orange  Free  State,  427 

Oregon  Treaty,  66-67 

Oreto,  Confederate  privateer,  245 

Orsini,  Felice,  200-201 

0  rtega,  Mexican  general,  shot,  250 

Osborne,  Bernal,  attacks  Disraeli's 
budget,  1852,  127  ;  and  Salomon's 
case,  212  ;  unseated,  847 

Osman  Pasha  at  Plevna,  416-17 

Otho  of  Greece,  95,  217 

Oudli,  annexed,  175  ;  king  of,  177  ; 
proclamation  to  chiefs  of,  197 

Outran!  and  Persian  War,  176,  179  ; 
at  Alumbagh,  193;  on  Canning's 
proclamation,  196 

Ozsford,  Edward,  attempts  life  oi 
Queen,  43 

Oxford  Movement,  32-34,  399 

pACIFICO,  DON,  case  of,  95-96        ^ 
-t      '  Painted      Chamber '       phrase, 

230 
Pakington,     Sir    John,     Admiraltv, 

207,  294  ;  and  <Ten  Minutes  '  Bill, 

SOl-303 
Palikao,  General,  235 
Palmer,  Koundell — see  Selborne,  Lord 
Palmerston,  Lord,  Foreign  Secretary, 

9,  84  ;  Pacifico  case,  96-97 ;  foreign 


444 


INDEX. 


PAN 


RAS 


& 


sympathies,  110  ;  difficulties  Avith 
Queen  and  Prince  Albert,  111-13  ; 
and  Kossuth,  115 ;  and  coup 
d'etat,  116  ;  dismissed,  117-18 ; 
Militia  Bill,  120;  Home  Secre- 
taiy,  128-141  ;  resigns,  142 ; 
resumes  office,  143  ;  and  Roebuck's 
Crimean  motion,  154  ;  forms  Minis- 
try, 155  ;  and  Crimean  army,  156  ; 
and  Crimean  war,  159 ;  Lorcha 
Arrow,  166-G7  ;  Divorce  Act,  167  ; 
Indian  Government,  198-99  ;  Con- 
spiracy to  Murder  Bill,  l;i9-200, 
202-206,  209;  at  Willis's  Kooms, 
221 ;  forms  Ministry,  2::2-2;3  :  offers 
places  to  Mill,  Cobden,  and  Milner 
Gibson,  223-24;  and  Bright,  224, 
paperduty,  229-31;  and  reform,232- 
33 :  and  Trent  affair,  243 ;  and 
Radical  party,  251-52  ;  and  Poland, 
256-57  ;  and  Dnnes,  258  ;  last  great 
speech.  260-61 ;  on  Cobden's  death, 
267  ;  death,  of  271-75 ;  and  tenant 
right,  356 

Panmure,  Lord,  War  Secretary,  155 

Papal  court  and  hierarchy,  99-lOi) 

Paper  duty,  28,  226-31 

Papiueau,    L  uis,  and   Canadian   re- 
bellion, 21-22 

Paris,  Congress  of,  160-61 ;  altera- 
tion in  Treaty  of,  373-7t 

Parkes,  Sir  James,  and  life  peerage, 
162 

Parkes,  Mr.,  and  Lorcha  Arrow,  164  ; 
taken  bv  Chinese,  235 

Parnell,  Mr.,  425 

Pasc  il,  reference  to,  14 

Pate,  Robert,  attacks  Queen,  43 

Paxton,  Sir  J.,  builds  Great  Exhibi- 
tion, 109 

Peace  Society,  146 

Peel,  General,  207,  294 ;  resigns, 
301-803 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  character,  9-10  ;  his 
travelling  from  Rome  contrasted 
with  Constantine's,  12;  Jamaica 
Bill,  36  ;  Bedchamber  question, 
37-39;  Queen's  marriage,  39; 
censures  Melbourne  Ministry,  40  ; 
Bill  to  punish  attacks  on  Qreen, 
43  ;  Maynooth  grant,  63  ;  Anti- 
Corn  Law  League,  72-78  ;  resigns, 
75  ;  repeals  corn  laws,  83  ;  re- 
signs, 84 ;  Pacilico  case,  97;  death, 
98-99;  and  Palmerston,  110;  and 
Wellington,  125 

Peel,  Sir  W.,  death  of  a/,  Lucknow,  194 


Pelissier,  at  Crimea,  158 
Persia,  and  Dost  Mohammed,  45  ;  war 
with    East    India  Company,    176- 
179  ;  Shah  of,  328 
Persigny  and  Orsini  plot,  202 
Peter  the  Great,  supposed  will  of,  134 
Petrel,  Confederate  privateer,  245 
Phoenix  Society,  313 
Pierri,  accomplice  of  Orsini,  201 
Pius  IX.,  sympathy  with  North,  242 
Plevna,  417 
Piimsoll,  Mr.,  and  merchant  seamen, 

401-404 
Plowden,  Mr.,  and  Abyssinia,  335-36 
Poerio,  and  Gladstone,  131 
Poland,  insurrection  in,  254-57 
Pollock,  General,  and  Afghan  Wai, 

54-55 ;  58 
Pomare,  Queen  of  Tahiti,  66 
Postal  system  and  Rowland  Hill,14-16 
Pottinger,  Eldred,  and  Afghan  War, 

50 
Prideaux,  Lieutenant,  Abvssinian  pri- 
soner, 335-337 
Prince  Edward's  Island  and  Canadian 

Confederation,  307 
Pritchard  and  Tahiti  question,  66 
Property  qualification  for  Parliament 

abolished,  214 
Prussia,  war  with  Austria  mentioned, 
4  ;  Mohammed  AH,  30  ;  King  of  and 
Great  Exhibition,  108  ;  Russian  in- 
fluence upon,  143  ;  King  of,  144 ; 
Foreign  Legion  Act,  161  ;  Poland, 
255-56  ;  war  with  Denmark,   257- 
60  ;  Avar  with  Austria,  298  ;    war 
with  France,  371-72 
Public  Worship  Bill,  399-401 
Punch     cartoon,     General      Fevrier 

turned  traitor,  156 
Punjaub  annexed,  175  ;  saved,  179 
Purchase  in  army  abolished,  363-68 
Pusey,  Dr.,  and  Oxford  movement,  32 


QUEEN,  the— .see  Victoria 
Queen's  Colleg<'S,  03 
Qne-ii's  Title  Bill,  408-409 
Queensland,  310 


RAGLAN,  LORD,  commands  Eng- 
lish forces  at  Crimean  war,  147  ; 
death  of,  157 
Railways,  regulation  of,  64 
Rassani,    Mr.,    Abyssinian    prisoner, 
335-337 


INDEX, 


445 


REB 


RUS 


Rebecca  riots,  65 

Redan  stormed,  158 

Redcliffe,  Lord  Stratford  de,  and 
Vienna  Note,  140-41 

Red  River  rebellion,  309 

Registration,  general  measures  for, 28 

Regium  Donum,  352 

Reform  agitation,  18G6,  in  Hyde 
Parli,  295-97  ;  in  country,  297-99 

Reform  Bill  of  1832,  and  its  re- 
sults, 17  ;  Mr.  Disraeli's,  218-21  ; 
Russell  and  reform,  218  ;  and  Dis- 
raeli's Reform  Bill,  221  ;  and  new 
Ministry,  222-23  ;  Lord  Grey's, 
220  ;  of  Palmerston  Ministrv,  22G  ; 
abandoned,  231-33  ;  Russell's,  2G8  ; 
Gladstone's,  of,  18C6,  2S8-92  ;  Mr. 
Disraeli's  measures,  299  -  305 ; 
meeting  in  Hyde  Park,  305 

Repeal,  and  O'Connell,  57-02  ;  move- 
ment and  '  Young  Ireland,'  91 

Republicanism,  in  England,  381-83 

Richardson,  Mr.,  murdered  in  Japan, 
253-54 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  at  Board  of 
Trade,  303  ;  and  army  purchase, 
365  5  President  of  Council,  1874,397 

Richmond  taken,  260 

—  Prison,  O'Connell  in,  61 

Riel,  Louis,  and  Red  River  rebellion, 
309 

Ripon,  Lord,  and  Akihama  com- 
mission, 376 ;  resign  presidency 
of  Council,  395 

Ritualism,  400 

Roebuck,  Mr.,  not  in  Parliament  of 
1837,  9  ;  resolution  supporting  Pal- 
merston, 96  ;  resolution  in  Pacitico 
case,  96-97 ;  and  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Act,  103 ;  Crimean  motion, 
153  ;  carried,  154,  157  ;  and  Lorcha 
Arrow,  166  ;  and  Conspiracy  Bill, 
203  ;  and  recognition  of  the  South- 
ern States,  248-49 ;  defeated  at 
Sheffield,  347 

Rose.  Sir  Hugh,  and  Ranee  of  Jhansi, 
195 

Rosenau,  Prince  Albert's  birthplace, 
40 

Rothschild,  Baron,  in  House  of  Com- 
mons, 210-11 

Roumania,  and  Derby,  410 ;  and 
Treaty  of  Berlin,  421-22 

Roumelia,  Eastern,  421 

Royal  British  Bank,  failure  of,  163 

'Royal  William,  Transatlantic  vovage 
of,  13 


Runjeet,  Singh,  and  Cashmere,  40 

Russell,  Lord  John,  leader  of  House 
of  Commons  in  1837,  9  ;  character 
of,  10-1 1  ;  and  term  '  Conservative,' 
11 ;  opposed  to  further  reform  in 
1837,  17  ;  sends  Lord  Durham  to 
Canada,  22  ;  and  Bedchamber  ques- 
tion, 38;  and  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  72-73  ;  Edinburgh  letter, 
75  ;  fails  to  form  a  Ministry,  75-76  ; 
forms  Administration,  84 ;  and 
Durham  Letter,  101 ;  resigns,  103  ; 
resumes  office,  104  ;  and  Eccle- 
siastical Titles  Act,  102-105  ;  and 
disagreement  between  the  Queen 
and  Palmerston,  112-13  ;  and  Kos- 
suth difficulty,  114 ;  and  coup 
detat,  116;  dismisses  Lord  Pal- 
merston, 117-18  ;  Palmerston's  '  tit- 
for-tat'  with,  118;  Mihtia  Bill, 
120  ;  resigns,  120-21  ;  cont'erence 
of  Liberal  members  at  his  bou.-e, 
122  ;  at  Foreign  Office,  Coalition 
Ministry,  1852,  128  ;  resigns  i  ill ce, 
154  ;  fails  to  form  Ministry,  155  ; 
Colonial  Secretary,  156 ;  goes  to 
Vienna,  156;  resigns,  157;  educa- 
tion resolutions  rejected,  1G2  ;  and 
Lorclia  Arrow,  166  ;  and  Indian 
Government,  199,  209  ;  and  Jews, 
210  ;  and  Salomon's  case,  211-13  ; 
at  Willis's  Rooms,  221 ;  Foreign 
Secretary,  223 ;  and  recognition  of 
Southern  Confederacy,  240,  and 
Alabama,  247  ;  correspondence  witli 
Mr.  Adams,  248;  and  Hexico, 
249 ;  and  Gortschakoff,  on  Polish 
insurrection,  256  ;  and  Danes,  258- 
69  ;  Reform  Bill  of,  268 ;  forms 
Government,  275 ;  goes  to  Lords, 
276  ;  and  Reform  Bill  of  186(;,  2S9  ; 
resigns,  292  ;  his  career,  293  ;  and 
suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  in  Ire- 
land, 311 ;  and  Abyssinia,  336  ; 
and  Irish  State  Church,  345  ;  death 
of,  424-25 

Russell,  W.  H.,  148 

Russia,  and  Turki>h  war,  with  Mo- 
hammed All,  29-30  ;  and  Afgha- 
nistan, 46;  and  I'acilieo  case,  96 ; 
growth  of,  133-35  ;  destruction  of 
Turkish  fleet  at  Sinope,  143  ;  and 
Sepoy,  176;  sympathy  of  with 
Northern  States,  242  ;  and  Polish 
insurrection,  254-7  ;  and  Treaty  of 
Paris,  373  ;  and  Turkey,  410  ;  war 
with  Turkey,  416-18;    Treaty  of 


446 


INDEX. 


SAD 


SUM 


San  Stefano,  419  ;  of  Berlin,  420- 
22  ;  and  Treaty  of  Berlin,  422-23 


SADLEIR,  James  and  John,  163 
Sale,  General,  and  Afghan  War, 
52-56 

Sale,  Lady,  52 

Salisbury,  Lord,  and  Lorcha  Arrow, 
166  ;  and  Lowe,  276-77  ;  character, 
280-81  ;  Indian  Secretary,  295  ; 
resigns  on  '  Ten  Minutes'  Bill,  SOl- 
303  ;  '  Leap  in  the  Dark,' 306  ;  Irish 
Stnte  Church,  345  ;  Indian  Secre- 
tary, 397;  Public  Worship  P.ill, 
401  ;  Constantinople  Conference, 
415  ;  Foreign  Minister,  420 ;  at 
Congress  of  Berlin,  420 

Salomons,  Mr.  David,  case  of,  211-13 

Salonica,  outbreak  at,  410 

San  Jacinto  and  Trent  affair,  243 

San  Juan  question,  376-78 

San  Stefano  Treaty,  419 

Sardinia  and  Crimean  War,  1-58  ;  and 
Congress  of  Paris,  161 

Satsuma,  Prince,  254 

Sattara  annexed,  175 

Savannah,  Confederate  privateer,  245 

'  Saxon,'  term  used  by  O'Connell,  59 

Schenck,  General,  and  Alabam  i  com- 
mission, 376 

Schleswig-Holstein  question,  257-60 

School  Board  s^'stem,  361-63 

Scinde  annexed,  65 

Scindia  and  Indian  Mutiny,  193-94 

Scotland,  Kirk  of,  34-35 

Scutari,  hospitals  at,  152 ;  Miss 
Nightingale  at,  153 

Sebastopol,  besieged,  147-61,  153; 
al>anil()ned,  158  ;  restored  to  Russia, 
160 

Secdcoeiii,  427 

Sedan,  battle  of,  372 

Sedgwick,  Professor,  death  of,  388 

Sel  borne.  Lord,  and  Ecclesiastical 
'Jitles  Act,  103  ;  Lorcha  Arrow, 
166  ;  Irish  State  Church,  353  ;  Lord 
Chancellor,  3i)l 

Semmes,  captain  of  Alabama,  246-47 

Servia  and  Turkey,  411  ;  at  war,  415  ; 
Treaty  of  lierlin,  421 

Sewell,  Chief  Justice  and  Canadian 
Confederation,  308 

Seymour,  Sir  Hamilton,  conversations 
with  Czar  Nicholas,  137 

Seymour,  Admiral,  Sir  M.,  bombards 
CantoHj  1G6 


Shaftesbury,  Lord,  employment  of 
women  in  mines,  62;  Factories 
Act,  63 ;  Ellenborough  despatch, 
197;  Poland,  255 

Sheffield,  trades- union  outrages  at, 
319-21 

Shell,  R.  L.,  in  Parliament,  1837,  11 

Shelton,  Brigadier,  in  Afghan  War, 
48,  50,  53 

Shei)stone,  Sir  Theophilus,  annexes 
Transvaal,  427-28 

Shere  Ali,  425-26 

Shore  or  Condon  and  Manchester 
rescue,  317 

Sikh  wars,  66,  175 

Simpson,  General,  at  Crimea,  157-58 

Sinope,  Turkish  fleet  destroyed  at, 
143 

Slave  circulars,  404-405 

Slavery,  and  O'Connell,  53 ;  in  Ame- 
rica,'239-40  ;  abolished,  251 

Sliddell,  Mr.,  and  Trent  case,  243 

Smith,  W.  H.,  elected  for  Westminster, 
347 

Solferino,  battle  of,  221 

Soojah,  Shah,  46  ;  entry  into  Cabul, 
47 ;  death  of,  54 

South  Africa,  confederation  scheme, 
407  ;  war  in,  427-30 

South  Australia,  310 

Spanish  marriages,  87-88 

Spain  and  Mexico,  249 ;  Franco- 
Prussian  war,  371 

Spencer,  Herbert,  and  Jamaica  ques- 
tion, 286 

Stamp  duty,  28  ;  227-28 

Stanley,  CoJonel,  War  Secretars-, 
420 ' 

Stanley,  Mr.,  discovers  Livingstone, 
388 

Stanley,  Lord — see  Derby,  Lord 

Stephens,  James,  314-15 

St.  Leonards,  Lord,  Lord  Chancellor 
121 

Stoddart,  Colonel,  prisoner  in  Bok- 
hara, 66 

Strikes,  Mill  on,  323 

Stroud,  Russell  on  term  'Conserva- 
tive '  at,  8  ;  Conservative  victory 
at,  395 

Sturt,  Mrs.,  in  withdrawal  from 
Cal)ul,  52 

Suirar  duties,  87  ;  foreign  and  colonial, 
ii'l 

Sullivan,  Mr.  A.  M.,  and  Mr.  Plim- 
soli,  KKJ 

Suniiner  palace,  destruction  of,  236 


INDEX, 


447 


SUM 

Sumner,  Charles,  and  Alabama 
claims,  374-75 

Sumter  Fort  taken,  240 

Sumter,  Confederate  privateer,  245 

Suttee,  suppression  of,  175 

Swinburne,  A.  C,  and  Manchester 
prisoners,  317 

Syria,  war  in,  29 ;  Lebanon  disturb- 
ances, 237-38 


TAHITI,  dispute  with  France  about, 
66 
Tantia    Topee,   Xana    Sahib's    lieu- 
tenant, 186-87  ;  execution  of,  195 
Tara,  hill  of,  meeting  held  by  (J'Ct  n- 

ncll  at,  60 
Tasmania  and  transportation,  167--68  ; 

310 
Telegraph,  postal,  334 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  and  Jamaica  ques- 
tion, 286 
Thackeray,  death  of,  265 
Theodore  of  Abyssinia,  335-38 
Thesiger,  Sir  F. — see  Chelmsford,  Lord 
Thiers  and  Mohammed  Ali,  30  ;  and 

Commercial  Treaty,  227 
Thornton,  Sir  E.,  and  Alabama  com- 
mission, 377 
Tichborne  case,  386-87 
Ticket  of  leave  svstem,  168-70 
Tien-Tsin,  Treaty  of,  207,  233-35 
Todleben,  General,  and  Crimean  war, 

162  ;  and  Russo-Turkisb,  417 
Tone,  Wolfe,  O'Connell  on,  59,  311 
Tractarians,  the,  399 
Tracts  for  the  Times,  32 
Trades    Unions,    Shefheld    outrages, 

319-21 ;  account  of,  322-24 
Transportation,  167-70 
Transvaal,  annexed,  427-28 
Treiit  affiair,  243-44 
Trevelyan,  G  0.,  in  Parli  mient,  270 
Trevor,    Mrs.,    in    withihawrd    from 

Cabul,  52 
Turcot,  and  coup  d'etat,  1 16 
Turkey,  Mohammed  Ali,  29-30; 
treachery  of  Capilan  P;isha,  •-9; 
gradual  decay  of,  132-33 ;  anta- 
gonism with  Russia,  135;  *sick 
man,'  137;  Kutchuk-Kainardji 
Treaty,  138-40  ;  fleet  de-troyed  at 
Sinope,  143  ;  Dardanelles  and  Bos- 
phorus,  144-45  ;  Congre-s  of  Paris, 
1()0  ;  Lebanon  disturbances,  237- 
38;  Abdul  Aziz  in  England,  327- 
28;    Herzegovina  rising,    410-11; 


WHE 

death  of  Abdul  Aziz,  dethronement 
of  Murad,  accession  of  Hamid,  412  ; 
Bulgarian  atrocities,  413-14  ;  war 
vath  Servia,  415  ;  war  with  Russia, 
416-17  ;  Treaty  of  San  Stefano, 
419  ;  Treaty  of  Berlin,  420-22 ; 
Secret  Treaty  with  England,  422-23 


ULSTER,  tenant  right,  356-58 
United  Irishman  newspaper,  92 
United  States — see  America 
University  Tests  Bill,  370 


TTACCINATIOX  ACT,  28 

Y  Vancouver's  Island,  67  ;  and  con- 
federation, 307 

Venetia  added  to  Italy,  298 

Vicksbiirg  taken,  249 

Victoria,  education,  2  ;  accession,  8  ; 
affection  for  Melbourne,  6  ;  Bed- 
chamber question,  37-39  ;  marriage, 
39-42  ;  attempts  on  life  of,  43-44  ; 
difficulty  with  Palmerston,  111-17  ; 
and  Dundonald,  238  ;  death  of 
Prince  Consort,  244-45,  288 

Victoria,  colony  of,  310 

Victor  Emanuel,  enters  Milan,  221 ; 
visits  England,  226 

Villiers,  Charles,  and  Anti-Corn  Law 
League,  68,  126-27 

Volunteer  movement,  118-20,  226 


WALES,  PRINCE  OF,  birth,  44; 

VV      illness,  382 

Walewski,  and  coup  d'etat,  1 16-17 ; 
Orsini  plot,  202 

Walpole,  Mr.,  Home  Secretary,  207  ; 
resigns,  220  ;  Home  Secretary,  294  ; 
reform  disturbances,  297,  305  ;  re- 
signs, 306  ;  retirement  of,  331 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  and  Protestan- 
tism of  Prince  Consort,  41 ;  op- 
poses opening  ports,  74  ;  Chartism, 
90  ;  '  Who  ?Vho  ?  '  Ministry,  122  ; 
and  Peel's  death,  125  ;  death  of, 
121-26;  conversation  with  Czar 
Nicholas,  136 

Wensleydale  Peerage,  162 

Westbury,  Lord,  resigns,  267-68; 
death  of,  388 

Western  Australia,  SlO 

Wheatstone,  Prof-,  find  electric  tele- 
graph, 12 


448  INDEX. 

WHE 

Wheeler,  Sir    Hu^h     at   Cawnpore, 

182,  185 
Whiteside,  and  Lorcha  Arrow,  166 
» Who  ?  who  ?  '  Ministry,  122 
Wilberforce,  Bishop,  death  of,  388 
Wilkes,  Captain,  and  Trent,  243-44 
William  IV.,  death  and  character  of, 

1-2  ;  and  Dundonald,  238 
Williams,  Mr.  Justice,  and  Alabama 

commission,  376 
Willis's  Rooms  meetini!:,  221 
Windham,  General,  defeated  at  Cawn- 
pore, 194 
Window  tax,  partial  repeal  of  pro- 
posed, 103 
Wiseman,  Cardinal,  100  ;    death    of, 
2G6 


YOU 

Wolff,  Dr.,  and  Bokhara  prisouerSk 
56-57 

Wolselev,  Lord,  and  Red  River  rebel- 
lion, 309  ;  Ashantee  war,  396-97 

Wood,  Sir  Charles,  Chancellor  of  Ex- 
chequer, 81  ;  Admiralty,  150 ; 
Indian  Secretary,  223 

Wood,  Sir  W.  Page — see  Hatherley, 
Lord 

Wynn,  Miss,  account  of  accessionj  2 


yAKOOB  KHAN,  426 

X     Yeh,  Commissioner,  and   Lorchs 

Arrow,  164;  captured,  20G-207 
« Young  Ireland,'  91-94 


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